No God Like Our God

August 23, 2009
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

No God Like Our God
1 Kings 8

O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath,
keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart. - 1 Kings 8:23

My sermon outline:

• A plane was going through some particularly rough turbulence when a passenger turned to the priest seated next to her and said, “You’re a man of God; can’t you do something about this?” Replied the priest, “Lady, I’m in sales, not management.”

I point to God. As Jesus said, My food is to do the will of the one who sent me. (John 4:34). And says Paul in Acts 20:24, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.”

• We’ve spent the summer in the lectionary with the Kings of Israel, beginning with Saul back in June, spending all of July with David, and introducing Solomon last week. And believe it or not today’s the last day of the kings in the lectionary. Hello and goodbye, Solomon. We won’t be getting into Solomon’s downfall or the falling apart of the kingdom or the succession of kings where each one was worse than the last. No today we celebrate one of Solomon’s great achievements, the building of the Temple in Jerusalem. The earthly dwelling place of the God of Israel. THE central place of worship and sacrifice. Using the finest materials and craftsmen available (as well as forced labor!), it took Solomon seven years to complete the Temple… and 13 years to complete his own palace and houses, but that’s another story...

• I was drawn to two verses from today’s reading: 1K8:23 and 1K8:27.

“O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart…”
- 1 Kings 8:23

“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!”
- 1 Kings 8:27

• There is no God like our God... Search through other religions and you will not find a God like the God of Christianity, who enters into relationship with his people, who loves and offers wholeness and newness of life, who asks us to be like him and therefore gave us a model to follow and a Spirit to empower, who lives within us, thanks be to God. Point to God, be in God sales, give God glory.

• 1 Kings 9:3 I have consecrated this house that you have built, and put my name there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.

• #540 I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord


- Pastor Kerry

This Sunday: 51 in worship.