God['s Great Power Is Yours!

April 27, 2008

Scripture Readings-

Today’s Scripture readings all have a common theme; they talk about the power of God. In the Gospel lesson Jesus tells us, “All power, all authority, in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. The Old Testament reading, in fact Chapters 37, 38 and 39 of Job, all talk about God’s power. If we think that God is a little bit short on power or isn’t acting in our behalf the way we want him to act, just read those passages; God really humbles us. He says, “Do you have the power to create a thunderstorm? Do you have the power to make clouds come in? Do you have the power to sustain the universe?” God has that power. And the Epistle lesson is an incredible reading; it tells us that God wants us to have that power. We’ll talk about that in the sermon today.

Old Testament – Job 37:5-12 God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ So that all men he has made may know his work, he stops every man from his labor. The animals take cover; they remain in their dens. The tempest comes out from its chamber, the cold from the driving winds. The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightening through them. At his direction they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever he commands them.

Epistle – Ephesians 1:15-21  For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints; and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in   the heavenly realms, far    above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

Gospel – Matthew 28:16-20  Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Sermon –

These are incredible words in the book of Ephesians. Last Sunday afternoon when I was going over the readings for today, these verses hit me hard. Paul says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which he has called you and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” God wants you to experience and to know His great power. The sense of these verses in Ephesians Chapter 1 is that Paul has experienced God’s great power in his life and wanted to tell somebody about it. The same goes for us, when we experience God’s great power we want to tell somebody about it. All this gets back to what we have talked about over the past couple of weeks; in John 10:10 Jesus tells us that He came so that we would have life and have it to “The Full”. How do we get “The Full”, how do we experience all the fullness that God wants us to have?

Sometimes God gives us things so that we cling to Jesus, but on the other hand, sometimes He takes things away so that we cling to Jesus. That’s what Paul experienced in 2 Corinthians 12. God took away his strength and his health and Paul experienced what he calls “a thorn in his flesh”. Paul was weak; how was he going to survive, how was he going to go on, what was he going to do? When we look in 2 Corinthians 12 Paul says that in his weakness he experienced God’s power and strength. He pleaded with God to take this thorn in his flesh away, but God said “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”. And Paul writes, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for when I am weak, then I am strong.” Paul is writing about experiencing God’s great power. He knows that power is there, he knows it’s available for each and every Christian and he wants you to be aware of it and to have it.

Why would God want to give us His great power? Everything in this world is about power, control, and money; people want to grab on to power. Yet God does just the opposite; He wants to share His power with you. Why would He want to do that? God gives us His power because He is so pleased with what Jesus Christ did, that He came to earth, lived the perfect life in our place, died as payment for sin, and rose from the dead, that He is willing to forgive us forever. He’s willing to answer our prayers and He’s willing to adopt us and take us into His kingdom. God is so pleased what Jesus did on your behalf and on my behalf that He is willing to share his power with us.

But His power is not available to everyone. According to Ephesians Chapter 1 this power is available for those who believe. That’s why our relationship with Jesus Christ is so important and why we build on that relationship. Think of the advantage that gives you in life over the non-believers. You have God’s incredible power, power enough to raise the dead – and others don’t. Thank You God, that’s very humbling. God’s power is there for those who have confessed their sins, those who believe Jesus lived the perfect life for them, those who believe that He paid for their sins and rose from the dead; that’s who God’s power is for - the power is for you!

This is where the devil comes in to confuse us because so often we are not aware of this power or don’t even think that the power exists. We know how to tap into electric power - take the plug and plug it in to the wall. We know how to tap in to horse power - start your car. But how do we tap into the power of God? By reading the Bible! But that’s where the deception comes. The power in the Bible isn’t human power and we can’t measure it. We can only measure power that we manufacture; electrical power, horse power, water power, atomic power. But, we can’t manufacture God’s power; therefore we don’t know how to measure it. But is it there?   It is, and it comes to us through God’s Word.   There is power in God’s Word, power that is so great that it can raise the dead! Are scientists ever going to come up with a power so great that we will be able to raise the dead? We can’t even cure the common cold! And God’s great power is available to you!

God’s great power is the power that can rearrange circumstances in life. As Paul says, God’s power so great that it can bring life from the dead. Let’s look at some of those circumstances that God’s power can rearrange. It’s pretty easy to make enemies in life since we are sinful human beings living in a sinful world. Give somebody the wrong look or say the wrong thing and you’ve developed an enemy. God says “If somebody has something against you by all means go to them, talk to them and make peace” (Matthew 18:15).    But sometimes that’s hard to do especially if they don’t understand Christian principles. And it’s particularly tough when you live in a small town because you keep running into people all the time. Do you know you can put God’s great power to work in this situation? You can call upon God to use His great power so your enemies are at peace with you. God tells us in Proverbs 16:7 “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even His enemies to live at peace with him.” That’s the power of God to go out and rearrange circumstances in your life. Make sure you tap into that power. For those people who are not at peace with you and there’s something that you can’t get to the bottom of, pray and put God’s great power to work in the situation.

God’s great power is the power to supply needs. I always look back to that great story about Jesus feeding the five thousand; five loaves of bread and two little fish fed over five thousand people. How could that happen? It’s the power of God, the power that is so great that it can raise the dead, can rearrange circumstances so that five loaves and two little fish fed over five thousand people.   That’s incredible power! Have you tapped into that power?   God has a way for us to tap into that power and see it at work in our lives that doesn’t involve loaves of bread and fish but involves our paycheck. God says in Malachi Chapter 3 to take 100% of your paycheck and give 10% to God. Last week we talked about how we get to know God’s power when He takes stuff away, so give 10% to God. Then you have to survive on 90% of our paycheck and you will see God’s great power rearranging circumstances in life. All of a sudden 90% of your paycheck has the buying power of 100% or even more, and needs are provided for. That’s the power of God that raises the dead, the power of God that rearranges circumstances in life. God says “I’m going to rearrange circumstances in life. Bring your whole tithe into the storehouse and I’m going to make sure that the insects aren’t eating your crops and the fruit isn’t dropping from the vine prematurely. I will rearrange circumstances in life so that you will have enough.” That’s the power of God and that’s the power that’s available to you.

It could be that some bad things have happened to you. You have the power of God to rearrange these circumstances in your life. In human power we cannot take the bad things in this world and rearrange them. But God can because He has the power that raises people from the dead. He has the power to takes bad things that happen, rearrange them, and bring good from them. God says in Romans 8:28 “All things works together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” Why? Because of the power of God to rearrange circumstances. Tap into this power!

An interesting thing happened to me this week. At first I thought it was pretty funny but when I started thinking about the implications, it made me a little bit mad. I received a call from one of our members the first of the week. They told me that there is an uncomplimentary rumor regarding me floating around town.  This rumor is a personal attack, it reflects badly on me and on this ministry. The rumor is so strange that when I first heard it, I laughed. And in trying to track down what could be the cause of this rumor, the people I asked about it actually laughed also, they said, “You’re kidding me!!” But as time went on I started thinking that this could be damaging, this could be serious stuff. So what do I do about it? I could do Matthew 18:15 and try to track down the source of the rumor, talk to the person and try to stop the rumor. But we could never track down the source of the rumor. So what do I do? Am I helpless? Well, lo and behold, the Bible reading for today talks about the power of God, so why not put God’s power to work on this? In prayer I said, “God, with your mighty power that raises the dead, just go to work and handle this rumor.” And then I thought, “Wow! Something is actually being done about this! God’s power is going to work on this, I feel much better!” – and I did feel better -  for about three minutes. And then you start thinking about the implications, and you wonder if there’s a way out of this.

There’s always a way out because we have our Bible – you go to God, retreat to His throne room, open your Bible, pray, and let God answer.  This rumor shows the mighty power of God to rearrange circumstances because just this week just when I needed an illustration for this sermon about God’s mighty power, God provided one through this rumor. Over the past couple of weeks in our Bible readings God had already directed us to a really great passage that talks about the strange things that happen to Christians, 1 Peter 4:13. And as I was praying and thinking about this rumor, this strange thing that was happening, and wondering how it could have happened, I remembered this passage. God says, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trials you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you…” Now if that isn’t God speaking to the situation, I don’t know what is! “…But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you will be overjoyed when His glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.” And I thought “Boy, that really handles it!” That’s the incredible power of God, that’s God directing you. It’s at work even before you are aware of the situation, directing you to the proper place in the Bible through Bible study or Sunday school or the worship service. You can go to Him and put His mighty power, power that is strong enough to raise the dead, to work on your situation. If you’re in a situation that just doesn’t seem to get better and you think that there is no way out, retreat to God as often as you need to during the course of the day, talk to Him in prayer and let Him answer your needs through His mighty power, through His words in the Bible.  

And if you don’t know where to look in the Bible we have help for you. Pick up your copy of our main newsletter from your mailbox or call the Church office at 352-4446 and ask for a copy. It has all these “Emergency Numbers” - where to look in the Bible when you’re in sorrow, when you need courage, when you need the secret to happiness, when you’re bitter, when you’re dealing with fear; you name it, it’s there! So take your situation and put God’s mighty power to work on it. And when you need a break from the situation, retreat, go to God’s room and through prayer and by reading one of these passages you will see Gods’ mighty power at work. It worked for Paul; he saw God’s mighty power. It’s worked for many members of this congregation and it worked for me this week. I’m excited about this. The Bible says it’s for those who believe. God’s mighty power, power so great it raises the dead, is available to you – right now!

  Prayer –