The God of No Limits

Good afternoon everybody. Is it afternoon? No, not quite after 12pm yet, but so it’s getting close, right? It’s good to see all of you. I’m looking forward to, I guess this is part two. I got to preach to the morning service and now I get to share with all of you guys. So let’s start with the word of prayer, right? God and Father in Heaven, thank you so much for this time. And I just pray that you can open our hearts, open our minds to knowing you better and understanding better the reason that you put us on this earth. Thank you so much for Jesus, for all he is and has done and continues to be in our daily lives. We pray in his name. Amen.

As Eddie was mentioning, we do go way back. And I’ve just recently in April celebrated my 48th year in the Lord. And in all these years, the right way I remember is that last week I celebrated my 42nd wedding anniversary and I was a Christian six years before I got married. So it’s hard to keep those numbers together. But as you go throughout this journey, you begin to appreciate more and more people who stand the test of time.

Because in the Christian walk, you don’t end with the people you begin with in this journey. And you can go back and look at old photos that you have or even your wedding photo and your wedding photos and you realize I started with people that I’m no longer with. And so I appreciate so much Eddie and Lapatic, because they have stood the test of time and continue to stand the test of time. They’re just dear friends of Cynthia and I because they’re people that we can confide in and know that they’re going to be unwavering and uncompromising in their convictions. So I love you guys so much. Cynthia sends her love as well, but just the fact to know that you’re still there, you’re always going to be there and you’re not going anywhere. And you mean so much to me and to this church. So I hope you all appreciate that as much as I do. So today we’re going to take some time to talk about God, all right? And really, that’s what we should do at church, right? We should talk about the Lord God. And the title of our sermon today is the God of no Limits.

I need to hear this because 2023 has been a challenging year for me, and I might be the only one who’s had to face enduring challenges. I’m not calling them problems anymore. I’m calling them challenges because God has allowed them. And I’ve been striving to get to know God better, because my conviction is. The better we know God, the better. We understand life, the better we know ourselves, the better we know others, the better we understand why God put us on this earth in the first place.

I believe the reason our world is so messed up is people don’t know God. The reason that we struggle so often as disciples is because we don’t see God. At least we don’t see him as the great Lord God Almighty that he is. If a person does not know God. They don’t know what life’s about. I mean, you’re just existing, and you may accomplish a lot of things academically in your career, whatever, athletically. But if you don’t know God, then what is your life about? It’s just a mist. You’re here for a second and you’re gone. And I’m here to tell you today.

You were created for more than that. You were created more than 9 to 5. Go home, watch a little Netflix or whatever, and fall asleep and do the same thing all over again. You were created for a divine purpose from an amazing God who has no limits. The theme of the region that I’m in in New York is “Surrender all of me 2023”. So we’ve been talking about surrender all year, and it’s hard to surrender if you don’t know who you’re surrendering to.

And God wants us to surrender completely. But he wants us to do it voluntarily. He doesn’t want us to say, well, I’m afraid to go to hell, so let me do God’s will. No, God wants us to do the right thing because we decide to, because we want to, because we understand who he is and we understand who we are. And we realize the only safe place to be in this life is in a relationship with God.

And so let’s talk about surrendering to God. Let’s talk about understanding the God of no limits. I’ve been spending time studying the attributes of God because I want to have the right view of God. I want to have the right view of myself, and I want to have the right view of others. And you’re going to hear those things in our message today, that we need to see God in all his majesty and glory, omnipotence and greatness. And then we need to step back and realize where we stand. And then we need to look around and see that God has put us in a position where he wants us to influence others so they to can have a great relationship with Him. Our God, he is limitless.

God has so many amazing attributes. His knowledge is without limit. His power is without limit. His wisdom is without limit. God knows all of us. He knows every language, every dialect. He hears, every prayer. He’s present in all places, all the time, never gets tired, never gets weary, never needs a timeout, never needs to readjust things, reassess things, Google things, go back to the angels and Jesus and say, we made a mistake. Let’s do it over. No, he’s perfect in all his ways, all the time. We can trust Him without doubt, every day, every second of our lives. He is an amazing God and we need Him in our lives. He is present in all places, at all times. He knows every detail of every soul, every heart, every situation. God knows things about you you don’t want anybody else to know about you and I don’t want to know about you.

If we spent a day in your heart, in your mind, it would be a scary endeavor and we wouldn’t get out of life, because the stuff that goes through our hearts and our minds in the dark places know me. No, only God really knows you, because if I really know you and you really knew me, we would not be friends. But God knows everything there is to know about you, and he still loves you. He still wants a relationship with you. He knows your darkest thoughts. He knows the evil that resides in your heart. He knows the things that you think about other people that you don’t want them to know you think about them, whether it’s your wife or your children or your boss or your coworkers or your own family. He knows all that. But he still loves you. He still desires a relationship with you.

He’s not confined by the things that confine us. He’s not confined by space or by time. He’s the God of the past, he’s the God of the present. He’s the God of the future. He knows what’s around the corner before it comes and he’s saying to you, because I know all things and I am the unlimited God, you need not worry about anything. I got this. But we still struggle to trust Him in that way. But I’m just trying to help you to understand how great your God is, how amazing your God is. And because of that, you should have complete confidence in Him; confidence in your walk in life.

You should be confident that of your future, you should be confident of your salvation. Because this God, who is without limits, when he says something, it is true, he won’t take it back. The plan of salvation will not change, the Bible will not. Now the world’s trying to change it.

But God is an unchanging God an immutable God, and really he’s the only one who can say that I’m the same yesterday, today and forever. We can’t say that.

Go take a picture of yourself 10 years ago, 20 years ago. You have changed, brother. You go back to your high school reunion, some people are going to be going, Is that you? They can’t even recognize you anymore.

God is amazing. The psalmist tells us in Psalm 145.

And I went out and I meditated. It’s one of the psalms that I’ve memorized. And in Psalm 145, verse 3, it says, “Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. His greatness no one can fathom.” You can’t put your mind around how awesome and amazing God it’s impossible in our human, finite existence to comprehend who he is.

And that’s why, when we go to heaven, we will spend decades just praising Him, because it will be so amazing. Here’s the verse I was telling you about, psalm 145, verse 3. God, the message version says, “God is magnificent. He can never be praised enough.”

Is that right, church? He can’t be praised enough. There are no boundaries to his greatness, no boundaries. See, the reason I became a Christian is because for the first time in my life, I began to understand who God is. I tried that Agnostic thing, I tried to go, well, I’m not sure there really is a God. I think there’s a supreme being out there. And the guy who was studying the Bible with me took me out one morning.

I remember it was one evening, and he says, I want you to look at that sun. And the sun was setting behind the dorm. And he says, for that to take place, the sun has to be the right distance from the earth. And all of this has to be held together by forces that we can’t even comprehend and say there is no God, as we read here in Job, he says, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens, what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave, what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth. And wider than the sea.”

He’s trying to just get us to see that this God is so immense, he’s so magnificent, so marvelous, so huge that you can’t even wrap your mind around his majesty. And really, in our life, the bigger our God is, the smaller our problems are. We just need to see Him in all his glory. What is a quiet time for? What is a quiet time for? Well, my quiet time is for me to take time to see God, to hear the voice of God, to be in the presence of God. We need in our busy lives, as we’re told in Psalm 46, verse 10, to “be still and know that there is God to be still and know God says, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted in all the earth. I will be exalted in the heavens among the nations.”

I need that time. I need that time to consider where I am in life and who he is in my life and the difference that he’s going to make in my life and does make in my life. We all need that. I need to think about why am I here? What is my purpose? Where did I come know?

I got on the scale at Publix the other day and I just had a conversation with the scale. Liar, liar, liar. My numbers are lower than what you’re saying. Don’t you feel the same way? Yeah, right, but we measure. We measure other know, I’m looking at the football game yesterday and they’re talking about this kid Anthony Richardson, and all they talk about is how fast he is and how big he is and how big his hands are, whatever. And we do that. That’s the NFL Combine, and we measure people externally. I’ve even had people measure me. I’m having a conversation with some brothers and I’m standing up next to this one guy who’s bigger than me and the brother said, wow, I didn’t know he was bigger than you. It’s like there’s never been anybody bigger than me in the church.

I’m just like, seriously? Yeah. I’ve had people tell me, I thought you’d be taller. I thought your voice would be heavier. I mean, it’s like, seriously. We’re measuring, but God, we can’t measure God. And when God measures us, he’s not concerned about the outward appearance, is he, Church?

What’s his greatest concern? The heart.

But as we try to measure all things how smart are you? How wealthy are you? Et cetera, et cetera. You can’t measure God. God is immeasurable. There’s no one bigger than God. There’s no one smarter than God. God is amazing.

Here is a quote the God of the Bible is infinite, immeasurable, unquantifiable, uncontainable, unbound, utterly without limit. We cannot take the full measure of Him, no matter how hard we may try. We cannot confine Him to a physical and mental boundary. We cannot control Him, and we can.

Never stack up favorably beside Him. We should be humble before Him in his presence. Let me read this scripture, I think sometimes we just need to stop and read the Bible, you know, just read the Bible and just meditate on what the Bible says.

Here in Psalm 40:12-31. Let’s read this together. “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breath of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did God consult to enlighten him? And who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket. They are regarded as dust on the scales. He weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. Lebanon is not sufficient for you. Compare him to? For as for an idol, a craftsman cast it.”

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? It has been told you from the beginning. Have you not understood since the Earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the Earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground than he blows on them. And they wither. And a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? Says the Holy One, lift your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? Who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls them each by name?”

100 to 400 billion stars in our galaxy alone.

“Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. Why do you say o Jacob and complain? O, Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord. My cause is disregarded by my God. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the Earth. He will not grow tired or weary. And his understanding no one can fathom.”

And then, as we bring the scripture to a close, “he gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youth right grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.”

You see? What’s the message today? God’s without limits. The God you worship, the God you bow down before, he’s an amazing omnipotent omniscient, omnipresent God. He can’t fail. He’s never done anything wrong. He never will do anything wrong. He’s always there. He is an incredible, amazing God. And you need to put your whole trust in Him. And you can because of who he is, because of who God is. You can rely on Him every day of your life because of the Lord God Almighty, the all knowing and all present God. You don’t have one thing to be concerned about that’s why Jesus tells us do not worry, because God’s got you. He knows where you are.

Another quote. God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters. All mind and every mind, all spirits and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every polarity and all polarities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and on earth. Motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven and hell. Because God knows all things perfectly. He knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally. Well. He never discovers anything. He is never surprised, never amazed, never caught off guard. He never wonders about anything.

God is perfect. The only thing God wonders about is what’s going on inside of you. And he attempts to draw you out so you can see who you really are and he can help you to be what he created you to be. Our God is without limit. Is that the God you worship? Is that the God you get up in the morning and cry out to? Is that the God who sustains you in your daily walk?

The almighty, powerful God with whom nothing is impossible? Is that where you are spiritually? You see, if you’re going to make it as a Christian, god has to be your rock and your fortress and your ever present help in time of need.

It has to be him. It can’t be your husband or your wife or your spouse or your church leader. It has to be him. He is without limits. But here’s the struggle. God is without limits. We are limited. I’m limited, but God is not. It’s like we’re fragile. There are limits to our knowledge. There’s limits to our physical strength. There’s limit to our wisdom. I mean, we’re so limited. I mean, I go to the gym and I figure out how limited I am. I come back and I’m like, my left knee is limited. And now my right knee is limited. I’m struggling. My eyesight is not what it used to be. I mean, my hearing is not what it used to be.

As a matter of fact, my wife and I, it takes two of us to watch a movie. I can’t see it and she can’t hear it, but together we get it done. We are limited. We are limited. Man she only wants me to drive so far because she knows I can’t make it without her, and she can’t make it without me. She can’t drive at night, and I struggle during the day. Somehow we get to where we need to go, the limitless, immeasurable God sets limits and boundaries for us, for our own good. He measures our hearts. He measures our motives. He knows our intentions. But he’s given us his word so that we can stay within the boundaries for our own spiritual good, our own mental good, our own physical good. And our nature is to test and rebel against the limits and boundaries wherever they’re set. You put up a sign do not enter. What’s our first thing?

Why? What’s that sign? What’s behind that sign? That’s who we are. Wet paint. Do not touch. Oh, we’re going to touch it. It’s speed limit. If the world could just be saved. Everybody who obeyed the speed limit goes to heaven.

We all destined to hell. We don’t obey anything. How far over the limit can I go without getting a ticket? That’s what I think. That’s the way we live. I got these beautiful grandsons, and one of the ladies was helping me out. She says what you should do instead of telling them, do not go in the street, because as soon as I say, don’t go in the street, you know what they do?They want to see how far they can get to the street before I snatch them up. Don’t touch that stove. It’s like, really, seriously, you know how we are. That’s the way we are in life. She said you should tell them a positive thing, like, go stay in the grass or something like that so I’m trying to learn. I’m trying to put that into practice.

But the struggle is this. We are rebels. We’re rebels. All that this church is trying to do, all the church leaders are trying to do prayerfully. All the people in your life, all they’re trying to do is help you get to heaven. And look at us. Don’t tell me what to do. Don’t tell me where to be. Don’t tell me what to give. None of your business. And to some degree, that is true. But you do need people in your life to help you make it to heaven.

And if you’re just solely independent all by yourself, you are not doing well spiritually. Here’s another quote. Gene Wilkins, in her book, no One Like Him, says this, “we are line crossers, boundary breakers, fence jumpers, carrying inside us a warped belief that our heavenly parent wants to withhold from us something that is needful or pleasurable. Even as we enjoy his good gifts we feel a hyper awareness of the boundaries he has set, and we question their validity. Though he gives us 19 gifts and warns us away from one danger, we suspect that what is being withheld is not dangerous, but desirable.”

And so when we read God’s word, do not do this, do not commit adultery, do not lie, do not do this, or whatever the Ten Commandments, we go, “seriously, why?” I mean, what’s on the other side of that? And this rebellion is not just in us, and it’s in me. It’s in you, it’s in our children. Some of us. We’re trying to figure out what’s wrong with my child.

I got news for you. She’s rebellious, just like you. What’s wrong with my son? I’m not saying that’s all that’s wrong, but you think about it. Why aren’t they doing what you think they should do? And sometimes you know, I know what’s best for her. I know what this girl needs and you tell her and she does the opposite. Why is that? Because in my estimation, they’ve taken their eyes off of God and understanding.

We need to surrender. We need to follow. I don’t know what’s best for me, but God does. And the best days of my discipleship is when I’m humble and I’m teachable and I’m a learner. The best way to fix my marriage is to be humble and teachable and a learner. The only way you can help somebody become a Christian is as they reach a point in their life when they realize dog gun it. I don’t know. I don’t know. I need my Heavenly Father, who created me in his image to guide me along the way. And we need to learn that lesson over and over and over again because somehow we think other people are trying to keep us from doing what we want to do.

Being a Christian means I’ve surrendered and I realize I don’t know what’s best. And so let me go ahead and wrap this up with an example and I’ll just hit this example really quick.

Adam and Eve, you know the story, right? And we can go back and say that a lot of our struggles are the result of the pride and rebellion of Adam and Eve. But God just said look, Adam, Eve, this is what I want you to do. Now, this is not complicated, church. The Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden, right, to work it and took care of it. And the Lord commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die.

Is that complicated? How many of us think we could have done that? I could have been in the garden and just avoided that one tree. We got two people, three, four. We got a few you could avoid. I mean, it’s like all the other tree. Whatever you want, just don’t go near that one tree. Man, I would think I would go way to the other end of the earth just to get as far away from that thing as I could.

But what happened? We know the story, right? I don’t need to even go through all of it. I mean, it’s like the serpent shows up and Eve’s having a conversation with a snake. That’s a problem already. Girl, what you doing?Why are you talking to him? And what does he say? God knows that if you eat from it, your eyes will be open and you’ll have knowledge.

I’m here to tell you there’s some things you don’t need to know and you know how we are. I want to know. I want to know what’s going I want to know what’s going on in the back room. They’re having a meeting. What’s going on in there? The best days of my life as a Christian when I didn’t know anything except to love God and try to help other people get to heaven. I wasn’t in leadership. I just came to church. I wasn’t in any meetings discussing anybody’s life, was discipling, responsible for nobody but me.

And then things changed and I found myself in those meetings that I used to see going on. And now I know more stuff than I need to know and want to know about people who don’t want to do what God says and what they said they want to do in the first place. That’s just stuff that you don’t need to know. But what you do need to know is you need to know God and you need to want to obey God. And so God says, look, don’t eat of this one tree. And they do it. And this is what happens. The serpent says, you will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She gave some to her dumb husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were open and they realized they were naked. So they sewed fig trees together and made covenants for them. And God still loved them.

But what was it? Church. It’s the same thing that we’re going through right now. The Orlando Church of Christ has the potential to do amazing things for God. This region has potential to do amazing things for God. Whether you’re a Christian or not, God wants to use you in amazing ways and do immeasurably more in your life than you could ever imagine.

Right now, we have potential to turn.

The world upside down, but we’re rebellious. We don’t want to listen, and we’ve drawn lines. I’m not going any further than this. I’m done. I’m in my comfort zone and I’m not moving. That’s because we’ve taken our eyes off of God, and God is calling us to be more and to do more. And he’s saying, I want you to trust me and remove the boundaries. And if they’re going to be any boundaries, let those boundaries be within my word. These are the boundaries. “Hear now, Israel, the decrees and laws I’m about to teach you, follow them so you may live and may go and take possession of the land of the Lord, the God of your fathers has given you. Do not add to what I command and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord, the Lord your God that I gave you.”

Where are you this morning? Where are you? Where are you in your relationship with the God with no limits? If he was to have an interview with you and he asks you, do you revere me? Do you love me with all your heart, soul, mind and strength? Do you trust me? Where would you stand? If he asks you, do you acknowledge where you fall short so I can help you?Because when you’re weak, you’re strong, because you learn to rely on me? Are you living within the limits and boundaries God’s given you?

Let me tell you, I became a Christian and I thought the church was perfect. I saw no faults and then I grew up and I learned it’s not that way. There are people flawed just like me. We’re just a bunch of flawed people trying to get to heaven. Honeymoon does not last. But now I’m tested to put my trust in the Almighty living God and it’s not going to be absent of the challenges. It’s going to have to be through the challenges. There are no perfect churches, there are no perfect leadership, there are no perfect marriages. None of it.

We’re a mess. But somehow this amazing God still wants to work through of us. And personally I go to Him church as I come to a close. When I reach the limit of my strength, I worship and go to the one whose strength never flags. When I reach the limit of my reason, I go to and worship the One whose reason is beyond searching out.

When I reach the limit of my wisdom, which is often, I worship the one who is always when I reach the limit of my knowledge and doesn’t take long, I worship the one who has unlimited knowledge, the omniscient one. When I reach the limit of my capacity, when I feel the stress, when I feel the burden, when I feel like giving up, I go to the one who has unlimited capacity, the all knowing, all powerful, unlimited God. I encourage you, I implore you, draw near to Him. Don’t let circumstances or anybody keep you from being your best for Him, for God alone. God bless.