Over the past few weeks we have been looking at some of the attributes of God from the perspective of a child. This is because one day Jesus’ followers were chasing the children away, thinking Jesus was too important for children. Jesus was angry with them and told them to encourage the children to come. Then he said that unless we approached faith in God like a little child does, we’ll not make it to him. We need the simple faith of a child. We’ve thought about the idea that God is with me; God is for me; and, God forgives me. The last thing comes at the end of the verses I’m going to read – we’ve heard this bit of the story already today.

Luke 1:34-37 34 Mary said to the angel, “How will this happen? I am still a virgin.” 35 The angel said to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come to you, and the power of the Most High God will cover you. The baby will be holy and will be called the Son of God. 36 And here’s something else: Your relative Elizabeth is pregnant. She is very old, but she is going to have a son. Everyone thought she could not have a baby, but she has been pregnant now for six months. 37 God can do anything!”

The attribute I want to look at today is the omnipotence of God; that means the All-powerful God. You won't find the word omnipotent in the Bible, but what you will find about 350 times is the word almighty, almighty, all-powerful. And this word is only used of God.

Why is this so important? I can guarantee you that right now there are some of you who are facing seemingly impossible challenges, significant trials, situations that you don't know how to get out of, and you genuinely need the power of God to intervene, the power of the God who can do anything.

I have a colleague who says, "You're either coming out of a hard time, you're in the middle of a hard time, or you're about to go into a hard time." He’s not great fun to be around. It's kind of sad but it's true, so many people are struggling and they need help from the God who is all-powerful.

My goal today is to try and build your faith like a child to believe that all things are possible with God. Let me give you three statements that I hope will help. 

The first one if you face something impossible and you think, "I can't do anything about this," I believe a child would say:

My God can!

Jeremiah 32:17 17 “O Lord God! You have made the heavens and earth by your great power; nothing is too hard for you! 

Craig Groeschel tells the story of his daughter Catie who was sick with a poison ivy rash. She was 4 at the time and the doctor told them that she would need ointment in her bath and that it was going to be painful for days. When they got home she announced that God was going to heal her – yes in time – NO! tonight. Middle of the night – tada

How many of us need that ‘tada’ moment when we experience the power of God to overcome?

What about that strained and broken relationship?

Financial trouble?

Sickness?

Our family members who don’t believe?

My God can!

My God will! David and Goliath

1 Samuel 17:45-47 45 David said to the Philistine, “You come to me using sword, spear, and javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the armies of Israel. You have said bad things about him.46 Today the Lord will let me defeat you. I will kill you. I will cut off your head and feed your body to the birds and wild animals. And we will do the same thing to all the other Philistines too. Then all the world will know there is a God in Israel.47 All the people gathered here will know that the Lord doesn’t need swords or spears to save people. The battle belongs to the Lord, and he will help us defeat all of you.”

And when everybody else thought that Goliath was too big to beat, David said: With my God He's too big to miss! Give me some stones and move out of the way! And he took the giant down, because he didn't just believe that his God could, but he also believed that his God would. 

The problem is for many of us who grew up around Christianity is we believe God can but when it comes to us, we don't believe God will! We believe God might do it for somebody else, but we don't believe God will do it for me. Maybe you've even heard about God doing really incredible things, but you just think God's going to do it way over there; God's never going to do it over here. A child has the faith to believe not only my God can, but my God will.

I pray today that if you face something difficult that you will have the faith to believe in a God that can; that all things are possible with God, and you'll also have the personal faith to believe in a God that will. Not just that He can, but that He will – and that this will go deep into your soul that you will totally and completely believe in a God who says, "With me all things are possible." But, what happens when you do believe and you pray and pray but it doesn’t work out the way you expect it to?

Mary seeing her son crucified – surely would have asked God to stop it.

I believe the deepest kind of child-like faith is the one that says: "My God can and my God will, and even if He doesn't I still believe."

Even if God doesn't do what I think He should and know He could, I believe in a God whose ways are higher.

I believe in a God who is for me. 

I believe in a God who is with me. 

I believe in a God who forgives me. 

I believe in a God who has plans to bless me and to prosper me, not to harm me and to give me a future. 

I believe in a God who is so good, He's working in all things to bring about good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. 

My faith in God is not based on what He does, but on who He is.

Daniel 3:16-18 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “Nebuchadnezzar, we don’t need to explain these things to you.17 If you throw us into the hot furnace, the God we serve can save us. And if he wants to, he can save us from your power. 18 But even if God does not save us, we want you to know, King, that we refuse to serve your gods. We will not worship the gold idol you have set up.”

I believe our God can, and I believe our God will and even if He doesn't I still believe. I believe the story we heard today is true – Jesus was God in a human body. The shepherds gathered and the wise men travelled and there was a strange star in the sky. I believe God did all these things so that each of us can be forgiven and, through faith in Jesus, become a child of God.

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