{"id":51758,"date":"1999-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1999-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/god-is-always-able\/"},"modified":"1999-01-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1999-01-01T00:00:00","slug":"god-is-always-able","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/god-is-always-able\/","title":{"rendered":"God Is Always Able"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Once we were able, and now we&#39;re not. You know what you used to be able to do. I remember somebody at the Sunday school picnic who had been quite an amateur baseball pitcher in the early days&#8211;little league champs, you know. He hadn&#39;t played for about ten years, but he knew how to pitch.<\/p>\n\n<p>All the kids are playing, and along comes Father. He shows how he can still put them in low and away and still get in a few curve balls. Oh, he finishes in triumph. All the kids think he&#39;s great. &quot;I showed the kids a few things. The old fella hasn&#39;t lost his touch.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Then he wakes up the next morning, about seven o&#39;clock. He reaches up his arm. &quot;Ahhhhh!&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>His wife says, &quot;What&#39;s the matter?&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;Don&#39;t touch me. Don&#39;t touch me. My back&#39;s gone. Uh, it&#39;s my spine. It&#39;s broken. Get the doctor, the police, the ambulance. Call 911. Bring everybody. I can&#39;t move.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;What&#39;s the matter?&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;I think I&#39;m paralyzed. It&#39;s my back. It&#39;s my shoulders. It&#39;s my neck.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Then the wife says lovingly, &quot;It&#39;s probably the baseball.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;Don&#39;t be silly. I&#39;ve played baseball all my life.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;Well, you know, dear, you did go out pretty strong.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;I pitched six innings once without a break. O-o-h-h-h, don&#39;t touch me.&quot; Then eventually he crawls out of bed, and the wife&#39;s right. You see, there was a time when he was able, but the body is just telling him he&#39;s not able now.<\/p>\n\n<p>The marvelous thing with God is that down through the centuries he was able, he is able, he will always be able. I may be disabled, but he is able. I may be incapable, but he is capable.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[306,310],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[406,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[4180,4377,4378,4558,4670,4671,4674,5027,5265],"tax_ctp_topics":[378,401],"class_list":["post-51758","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-human-limitations","tax_ctp_tags-limitations","tax_ctp_tags-limits","tax_ctp_tags-old-age","tax_ctp_tags-power","tax_ctp_tags-power-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-power-of-the-holy-spirit","tax_ctp_tags-sovereignty-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-weakness"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>God Is Always Able - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/god-is-always-able\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God Is Always Able - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once we were able, and now we&#039;re not. 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