Part V God Is Bigger

Fear loves specifics: a volatile world leader, an election you can’t control, a fuel crisis, a boss who plays games, a family member who won’t budge, a habit that won’t let go. We talk honestly about those threats, then widen the lens until Isaiah 40:21–26 does what it’s meant to do: restore perspective. God sits above the circle of the earth, and even the biggest personalities in your life are not bigger than him. 

From there we get concrete. We revisit the biblical claim that God “removes kings and sets up kings” (Daniel 2:21) while still treating voting as a real responsibility. We also tell a workplace story where a quiet temptation to undercut a good leader becomes a crossroads moment for integrity. The question underneath it all is simple: what do you do when faith feels easy on Sunday but takes a hit on Monday? Proverbs 21:1 brings a steady answer about God’s ability to turn hearts, even the ones that intimidate you. 

Then the message turns deeply personal. Isaiah says God calls the stars by name and not one is missing, and we sit with the implication: if God tracks the heavens with care, he can hold your life with care too. We finish with a powerful outback illustration of a blindfolded night that feels lonely until morning reveals someone has been there all along, echoing Matthew 28:20. If you’re in a waiting season, this is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who’s under pressure, and leave a review so more people can find hope when fear gets loud.

Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.

Transcript

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Now we're back in sync. We're up to date, and this is part five. God is bigger than any creature. And you wonder why I'm saying that. And I'll explain it as we go along. Perhaps it is a person who has you in God's waiting room this morning. Perhaps you're concerned

God’s Waiting Room And Real Fears

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about some ruler who could destroy the world or an unreasonable boss, a disillusioned family member, some difficult person that is in your life at home or elsewhere. Are there drugs or alcohol that have hold of you or somebody you love? Well I have good news for you. God is bigger than any creature, than any person or any situation. The devil only thinks he has one, but you have a big God in your corner and he hasn't had his turn at bat yet. Look, beginning in Isaiah forty twenty one, it says this Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle on the earth. And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. Grasshoppers. First thing to note, okay, every creature on earth is like a grasshopper, and that's no big deal, unless you happen to be from Australia.

Isaiah 40 And Grasshopper Perspective

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Did you hear about the uh the Texan who was visiting Australia when he spotted some kangaroos? He asked, Oh, what are they? The Australian host that was with him said, What? Don't you have grasshoppers in Texas? The point is, all people, all hosts say, What? Don't you have grasshoppers in Texas? The point is simple, okay? Including those we fear most are no more than grasshoppers in terms of a threat of God. For those that didn't get the joke, okay, a lot of people think that you know kangaroos sort of like skip down the the road in metropolitan, you know, uh Perth and uh because they they're not from here, and so they have this delusion about some of our the creatures or the animals that live in here. Uh and you know, like the um koala bears are supposed to have the really long teeth and the sharp claws, they call them drop bears. No, that's all right, don't worry about it. It was a stroke for a joke for Australians. Now listen, okay, it it goes on to say this in uh Isaiah forty twenty two. It says, Is it he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretch out the heavens like a curtain and spread them like a tent to dwell in? Who brings you princes to nothing and makes the rulers of earth as emptiness? Scarcely are the planted, scarcely are the sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth when he blows on them and they wither, and the tempest carry them off like stubble. How much more clear could the Lord make it? He is the absolute and he is the absolute creator, he is the absolute controller, he is the absolute person, and he is a person who has control over everything. I'll give example. John Stalin Stalin was perhaps the most evil ruler of the twentieth century, which did not lack for candidates for that title. Far more people were killed under his regime than Adolf Hitler, for example. Listen to this description by Lance Murrow from an

Stalin And The Limits Of Tyrants

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article. This was an article entitled The Power of Paranoia, which appeared in Times magazine on the 15th of April 1996. Okay. Stalin's diners in the ke in the Kremlin went on for all night. He just had this dinner going on for the whole all day and all night. He would sit at the long table and force his ministers and all his cronies to drink hour after hour while he was plotting and probed and flattered them and getting them all terrified of him at dawn when their brains were numb with fear and vodka and confusion, okay, the NKVD might lead one or two of them away, for example, and then he shoots them. And Stalin refracted violent fear through alcohol, then perceiv presided over them, and in this mind game, and the end was death. He took them out, he shot 'em all. What sort of person holds a dinner engagement? You know, it's like me if I invited a group of friends around here from a local church and whined and dined them all night, and then just said, you know, you're not really afraid of anything, but perhaps you should be afraid of me because I brought you here for ulterior motives, and then just randomly just take someone outside and shoot them, and just say, Enjoy what you're doing now because you're next, and then you, and then you, and then you. That guy was one of the feared people for sure of all time, but when the Lord determined his time was up, he simply allowed one little blood vessel in the demented mind of this person to burst, and a stroke ensured that he was gone. There was nothing left of him as emptiness. His daughter Satilvana recalled the scene when he died four days after having the stroke. He suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was terrible glance. It was horrible. Then something incomprehensible and awesome happened. He suddenly lifted his left hand as though he was pointing to someone above and bringing him down to curse upon all of them. The next moment after a final effort, the spirit wrenched itself free of the flesh and he died. See, it happens to so many world leaders. Um people were worried about Osama bin Laden. I tell you, he went no further than God allowed him. Are you worried about an election that may be coming up? What about the fuel crisis that we're having? And what happens in the Middle East? He is still on the throne and still has power over the whole world. Remember when I was talking about um King Nebuchadnezzar. Now, here Daniel comments on King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel two twenty one. He said, He changes times and season, he removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. We should

Elections And World Events Under God

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certainly still vote when given the opportunity. It is our great privilege to cooperate with God in our great democratic process. But I tell you, God will set up whom He will and He will remove him when He wills. Look, probably for most of us this morning are a lot more concerned about some people a little closer to home. Perhaps it is an evil boss, a co-worker, a family member. Look again at verse twenty four. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth. When he blows on them and they wither and the tempests carry them off like stubble, God is in control. Alright? He is always in control. Look, I was a relatively young manager when a new executive management regime came into a company for whom I was working, right? One day the vice president of human resources came to me in confidence and said basically said this listen, we like you, play your cards right,

Workplace Power Plays And Integrity

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and you can have the your boss's job, the senior chief's position. But what she was basically wanted was for me to undercut or undermine uh my senior unit manager, basically stab him in the back. Yeah, there are evil people like that. Trust me, I've known a few. Well, though I was knew I knew this would be a threat to my job, it took me about two seconds to let the lady know that I was not interested in any such plan. My chief, my boss, was an honorable man, and in any case, the methods she was suggesting were wrong. And I'm happy to say that both the chief and I survived the next ten years. And guess what? The lady from HR that was wheeling and dealing and trying to get her promotion and put other people in positions and get rid of other people, it backfired on her, and she was the only one that was thrown out, and we had a very stable management for the next 10 years. Now, of course, I know there's going to be people out there gonna say, Oh, yeah, but what about my situation? I know it doesn't always work out that way. I could tell you other times that the Lord made me in his waiting room regarding fellow workers or those in leadership, but the point is, whatever the outcome, we need to trust him. Nothing can happen that he does not allow. See, I think we need to tend to believe this is in theory, as we hear it on a Sunday morning in church, but our faith really begins to take a hit on Monday morning when we arrive at facing the world again and the same situation that we are in over and over again. Believe me when I say take heart, use the scriptures, listen to what the scriptures are saying. Look, in Proverbs twenty-one, it says this the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. Can you not take comfort in that? I don't care whether you've got a tough boss, you've got a critical family member, a rebellious child, a troublesome neighbor. Whoever it is, God is bigger. God is bigger than any creature. He can move any heart just like he would move a stream of water. If he's asking you to wait, work on what he wants you to learn. Keep on praying and trusting him. Now I heard a great Scottish preacher by the name of John Knox was once asked if he were not frightened at the prospect of meeting the Queen of Scotland. He replied that he just spent four hours with the Lord in prayer and study and was not too impressed by a mere queen. He had it right, folks. God is bigger than any creature. You know, it doesn't matter who the person is, what title they hold, they're just a person, and they live where we live. We live in a godly world, we're surrounded by ungodly people. The remote thing to remember is God is always in your corner. There is another indication that God's spectacular nature is revealed throughout the scriptures. In verse twenty five and twenty six he says this to whom then will you compare me that I should be like him, says the holy one. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these.

Stars By Name And Personal Care

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He who brings out their host by numbers, calling them all by name, by the greatest of his might and because he is strong in power not one is missing. In how many ways these verses parallel to um different parts of the Bible. At the start of this section, it emphasized that the Lord's creative power, he's got this creative power. Not only has he created everything on earth, but he has created the heavens too. I think it is also interesting that similar in Romans 1, man is called upon here to notice, to look, to see the creation and understand the implications. Just as one would not hold an intricate and a beautiful watch in one's hand without supposing that it has been made by someone. So we also are responsible for seeing that the magnificence of creation implied in creating. But let me put it another way. I believe that the real thrust of this passage goes even deeper than that. He has not only created the stars and the heavenly hosts, but notice the two phrases, calling them by name, and not one is missing. At this point, the passage has removed from a pure recitation of the creative power of God to the first indication, the emotional investment he has in his creation. In other words, it is starting to get personal, building to the crescendo that we have in the later verses of this chapter. Look, if you it turns out, right, that God has not only created all of this, but he cares about it. See, God is the pure essence of love, and that's why we have the the love scriptures you know in 1 Corinthians 13. This is so wonderful. You don't want to miss this. Listen to what I'm saying. As most of you are aware, our little earth is a small speck in the this disc shaped galaxy of stars that is approximately a hundred thousand light years across and about ten thousand to twenty thousand light years thick. It is estimated to contain somewhere between two hundred and four hundred billion stars, of which our sun is just one. There are other galaxies as well. The Hubble telescope, which is really a satellite station, put it into Earth's orbit in the nineteen nineties, has allowed scientists to see much deeper into space than ever before, causing drastical revisions of estimations of the size of the universe. Most estimates today suggest that there are around a hundred billion other galaxies with the Milky Way being a small to medium size. Folks, that's more stars than you'll ever see at the Academy Awards. Didn't get the joke? More stars in the sky than there are at the Academy Awards. Isaiah tells us that God has a name for each and every one of these, and it's never been. Lost not one of them. I ask you this simply. If God so cares so much about his immaterial creation, do you think he doesn't care about you? We're told in Matthew 10 30, but even the hairs on your head are all numbered. For all I know, God has those given names to them as well. I grant you that that's a little harder for someone you know who's got a full head of hair, but you get the point, you know, I haven't got that much hair, so he doesn't have to concentrate on me much. But God is bigger than any caregiver. Beloved, he cares. He may be uncomfortable in the waiting room because you're uncomfortable, but he's right there with you, and he cares deeply about you. I just want to finish on this, right? In Australia, we have indigenous Aboriginal people. They used to have an interesting rite of passage by which a young boy becomes a man. At the culmination of this rite, the boy's father takes him into the outback, he blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is

The Outback Blindfold Story

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required to sit on a stump the whole night and not move and not remove the blindfold until the rays of sunshine in the morning shine on him. He cannot cry out for help to anybody, but once he survives that night, he's classified as a man within the Aboriginal community. He cannot tell the other boys of the experience because each lad must come to his manhood in his own way. The boy is naturally terrified, okay? Because this is a bit like the Jewish when uh a boy turns 13. So as 13, that's when you become an adult in most cultures, right? So you're 13 years of age, right? And you're sitting there, right? And you're got your blindfold on, you're in the middle of nowhere, there's nowhere, no one around, and all you can hear is all sorts of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around you. Maybe he's seeing uh there might be some human beings out there that are gonna do him harm. And he hears the wind rustling through the grass and everything, and um he's shaking in his boots, literally. But he sat stoslic, never moving, never removed the blank the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man. Finally, after a horrific night, the sun appears and he removes the blindfold. Now get this when he removes the blindfold, he then discovers that his father is sitting right next to him and he had been watching the entire night protecting his son from harm. Here's the thing. God is in the waiting room with you. Did you not know that? He is. He knows the name of every one of those billion stars and he knows your name too. He's never lost a star and he won't lose you either. He is bigger than any caretaker on earth. But I believe that the real thrust of this passage goes even deeper than that. He has not only created the stars and the heavenly hosts, but notice the two phrases calling them by name and not one is missing. At this point, the passage has removed from a pure recitation of a creative power of God to the first indication the emotional investment he God has with his creation, which is you. In other words, it's starting to get personal, building to the crescendo that we have in the latter verses of the chapter. And I'm going to give you this passage of scripture again. Matthew 28 20. God is always with you. No matter your circumstances, no matter your situation, no matter what you're going through, no matter what is aching in your heart, you do not need to

Never Alone And Final Promise

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worry if you're in the waiting room or you're just going through life's situations. God has got your back. He'll never leave you nor forsake you. He is always there and he's always watching over you. Trust Him in everything. Read the scriptures and know that you are never alone. Okay? God bless, and we'll talk to you next week. Bye for now.