Sermon Illustrations
Australia's GPS Was Off Because the Whole Country Moved
Australia is moving. This isn't so surprising—all the continents are on the move, and Australia drifts 70 millimeters to the northeast every year. Australia was once connected to both India and Antarctica, finally breaking away from the former 100 million years ago and the latter 45 million years ago. The continent still drifts away at a rate far too slow for humans to notice. But that journey is now starting to mess with systems that rely on pinpoint accuracy, specifically GPS.
Australian GPS was last updated in 1994, and the entire country has moved a little more than five feet since then. Much of our current technology relies on accurate GPS coordinates. For instance, driverless tractors that help with farm work will start having problems because the information about the farm won't line up with the co-ordinates coming out of the navigation system there will be problems. For Australians using driverless cars or shipping drones, accurate map information is fundamental.
Everything on earth changes, including the mighty continents. But for believers there are three crucial foundational things that will never change: God doesn't change, His Word doesn't change, and His promises do not change. These are settled forever in the heavens.