It's great that God is God. But is He willing to step in and help? Is He able to step in and help? I mean – when it really counts. Well, let's meet some people who can answer those questions firsthand.

Do you recognise these words?

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman! Yes, it's Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel with his bare hands and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter for the Great Metropolitan newspaper, fights the never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way.

I don't know about you but I grew up watching superman every afternoon after school on our old black and white television. There was something, something awesome about this Superman who was able to do all these super human things, things that I couldn't do. As I look back on it now, it was kind of a comfort, something that I wanted to be part of, in this "superman" thing, this man of steel. He was so strong, so invincible, awesome to a young boy growing up.

Superman, in that series, was played by a man called George Reeves. They recorded 104 episodes in the series between 1952 and 1957. It went from black and white to colour in 1954 but between 1.30am and 2.00am on the 16th of June 1959, Superman, George Reeves was dead. Just 3 months and 1 day after I was born. Little did I know, as a young boy watching these re-runs, that this hero of mine, superman was already dead.

What happened? Well they found George Reeves dead, lying across his bed, naked and face up with his feet on the floor. The position was attributed to Reeves sitting on the edge of the bed when he shot himself after which time his body fell back on the bed and the 9m Lugar pistol fell between his feet on the ground. The front page headline of the New York Post that day read: TV SUPERMAN KILLS HIMSELF.

What's my point? Well, I think that we all want to believe in some power for good that's bigger and stronger than us, some overall power for good that we can absolutely depend upon like, well like superman. But ultimately, most of us come to the conclusion that there's no such thing. Superman was a sham; superman shot himself. There can't ever be such a power. Even God, look at all the dumb and horrible and criminal things that have been done in the name of God over the centuries. People claim this and that about God but well, what does God claim about God? What does the evidence say? Is He just another sham like superman or is there something there?

Over these last couple of weeks on the program we've been doing a series that I've called 'Promises I Can Depend On' and the question is, is God just like superman, when we grow up you discover it was a kids fantasy at best, a sham at worst? Or is there something more?

Even in the days when I was running away from God, which has been most of my life, the one thing that always spoke in my heart about Him was when I managed to get away from the lights and the smog of the city in which I lived and at night I'd wander out and look up at the stars, the milky way, millions of stars – awesome!

Actually they're just a handful of the stars, there's a trillion in the milky way but so far we know of a trillion, trillion. I could never look on that awesome sight without somehow knowing, in my heart, that God was God and He was the most mighty and powerful force for good, beyond anything that I could ever have imagined.

Maybe that's what prompted the apostle Paul to write this to his friends in Rome:

Ever since the creation of the world, Gods eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things that He has made.

But it's one thing to think of a God so great He can create the universe but what about me? Is this God willing and able to help me? We're going to look at the stories of some men today who can tell us first hand. A leper and then some blind men, people who, because of their diseases, were outcast, poor and destitute. First the leper:

A man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged Him on his knees, "If you're willing you can make me clean" and filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the leper, He said, "I am willing, be clean." Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

In effect, the leper asked Jesus, "are you willing?" And Jesus replied, "I am, I am willing". He says it, He does it. Now, the blind men:

When Jesus entered the house some blind men came to Him and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe I am able to do this?" And they said to Him, "Yes Lord" and then He touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith, let it be done to you" and their eyes were opened.

To the leper He is willing and as it turns out, able. To the blind men He is able and as it turns out, willing.

I think it's fantastic, wonderful, stupendous that God created the universe, this vastness beyond any imagination, any comprehension and yet a complexity and an intricacy and a beauty that's way beyond our understanding. See, what that tells me, the universe, is that God is able but it's when He reaches out and He touches the leper and the blind men, that's when we discover that He's willing as well as able. That's when the power of God comes to you and to me. That's when we hear Him whisper into our hearts, "I am willing, I am able".

When I look back on my walk, from a kind of a vague distant belief in perhaps this mighty God, who made the universe and moving from that to a deep belief in the God who is willing and able to work His miracles in me, the thing that changed me was reading about how He works, God's word and like the blind men, believing and then seeing those miracles rort in me.

The changes, from this man who only ever wanted to be rich or only ever wanted stuff for himself, to becoming someone who now, all I want is to share Gods love with you. That's like a complete 180 degree turn and it's not because I'm some wonderful guy, it's because of the miracles God has rort in me. The passion that you hear in my voice, that's beating in my heart, that only comes from Him.

Listen to His promises: I am willing, I am able. No matter what confronts us, those promises stand. God is saying to you and to me today, "I am willing, I am able". Not some hollow fantasy, not some superman who shoots himself dead but the God who created the whole universe, a powerful reality, a willing God, an able God. A God who comes to you and me with promises that we can depend on.