Sermons

This message is taken from a pivotal experience in my own life. A time when spiritual power supply was at an all time low. I pray we may all learn from the Source of all Power! In the world around us power is compared to many things: Money, prestige, big engines, massive motors, horsepower, bulldozers, tractors, water wheels, windmills, generators, locomotives, big steam engines, generators... the list goes on and on. Does worldly power impress you? Does Heavenly power impress you? When you realize that Heaven’s power is available to the Christian does that impress you? Do you love the power source? Do you love Jesus? His incomparably awesome and great power is available to you and me! You may not be able to afford anything in this world as it relates to power but you and I can afford Jesus! Why? Because it is free!! His power and mighty strength can be yours.

I am weak, but I will tell you He is strong. What a great and awesome Saviour we have! Praise God! His power is great! But there is one problem with any other type of with power....it can fail. Have you ever had a power failure? Your car runs out of gas. You're stopped dead in your tracts. Power can run out. The electric line can go down in a storm. Can God's power fail? Can you experience a power failure of God? Well, His power won't fail, but, as a Christian your connection to Jesus Christ can fail, I can tell you that.

I would like to make a proposition to you. All Christians, that includes you and I, all Christians can avoid a spiritual power failure in their life. And I'm going to tell you how to do it. How can I tell you? From personal experience. I still struggle. Do you have struggles and trials in your life? You can get victory over that evil habit, that sin in your life, whatever it is. You can get the victory through the mighty power of Jesus Christ. You can do that! You can avoid power failure and experience the power of God in your life by practicing the following ten Bible principles:

1. Recognize that within yourself, there is no power.

You can't do it on your own, right? You may say, "Well, I don't have power in my life." Well, I know you don't. We don't have power in our life. We have no spiritual power in ourselves. We are weak. But praise be to Jesus Christ - He is strong. Let’s look in our Bibles at 2 Corinthians 12:9: “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” We are weak, aren't we? We need to recognize that we are weak and that He is powerful. This is a key factor. An essential criteria for experiencing God's power in your life is the recognition that you are weak. You don't have it. So don't try it on your own. Don't go out there and do hand-to-hand combat with the devil because you will loose. You don't have that power. We are about as helpless as seaweed that is tossed up on the hot, dry sandy beach. We just can't do it. Jesus said in Mark 10:18, “.... there is none good but one, that is, God.” Nobody! We don't have that power.

The second Bible principle to avoid power failure in your life:

2. Know that Jesus is your source of power.

Recognize that. Number one was "You don't have any power." Number two is "Know that Jesus is your source of power." Matthew 28:18, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”

All Power! Jesus has all power! Jesus is a very powerful being. We need to recognize that. He is the engine of the universe. "All power is given unto me..." He is omnipotent! He has unlimited power and authority! He has a monopoly on power. You can tap into the great powerhouse of the universe if you can tap into Jesus. Are you tapping into Jesus? His power is available to you.

Look at Col 1:11, “Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.” Can I ever relate to that text! Is God speaking to you today through Colossians Chapter 1 and verse 11? God will strengthen you! With His great power, with His awesome power, you can have the power of God in your life. You can experience the Power of God in your life and he has promised to strengthen you and to give you that power.

The third Bible principle to avoid power failure in your life:

3. Receive Jesus Christ as Your Personal Savior.

Jesus is like a 1000 megawatt power station, a power plant. Where is the location of this power? The power of Jesus Christ is actually within your heart! There is only one thing in this world that can separate you from it - your choice! Do we truly understand this? There will be no power failure when you choose - when you invite daily - Jesus Christ in your heart. It's impossible to have a failure.

Martin Luther was asked how he overcame the devil. He said, "When Satan comes knocking at my heart's door, he asks, 'Who lives here?' And Jesus goes and answers the door and says, 'Martin Luther used to live here but now I live here. And I am Jesus.' And then the devil goes away."

So, if you want power in your life, invite Jesus into your heart. No amount of steam will drive a steam engine until it is confined within a boiler under great pressure. All the water of Niagara Falls will never generate even one watt of electricity unless it is tunneled and contained under great pressure. No amount of gasoline will run your automobile until that gasoline is contained. Not until that small drop of Gasoline is confined within the cylinder of the engine will it exhibit its potential power.

Now let's continue with that thought. Jesus is the most powerful force in the universe. But not until Jesus resides within your Heart will you experience true power. That is why pastors, evangelists and preachers keep telling you, "You've got to have Jesus in your heart." Invite Him today to abide in your heart. And how do you receive Jesus in your heart?

The fourth Bible principle to avoid power failure in your life:

4. Ask for God's Power.

Matthew 26:41. "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." So, we need to pray. And, in prayer, we're asking the Lord for strength. Ask Him for strength and he will give you strength.

And when we are too busy to pray, we are too busy to have power in our life. Spiritual power won't come unless you are a person of prayer. It just won't happen. We have all the materials for a great spiritual Christian life, but we have a very little fruit. We have lots of activity, but very little spiritual growth. We should stop the hubbub and get on our knees and ask God for strength and spiritual power. Invite Jesus' power to come into your heart. Ask Him for strength and he will give you that strength.

The fifth Bible principle to avoid power failure in your life:

5. Make Jesus the Foundation of All that you Do.

Now, if you're going to have true spiritual power in your life, then you need to have Jesus as the platform of your whole experience. You're not in this world to gain money. You're not in this world to have self-importance. You're in this world for Jesus. Make Him the foundation of all that you do. Look at Acts 4:13, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Make Jesus the focus of your life. Make Him the foundation of all that you do. Peter and John were vastly different because they had been with Jesus.

One day the nine disciples (three were with Jesus) tried and tried to cast a demon and they couldn't do it. The boy was in epileptic fits all the time. Why couldn't they do it? Well, their faith in Jesus had gone flat like a tire. They just didn't have it any more. Matthew 17:19, 20, “Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? 20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” So, make Jesus the foundation of all that you do.

The sixth Bible principle to avoid power failure in your life:

6. Recognize your Enemy.

The first step on the way to victory is to recognize the enemy. Who is our enemy? Satan? Yes. But even more so, there is another enemy just as effective as the devil. Let me give you some food for thought. Lets’ say, hypothetically, the devil died at 11:45 PM tonight. The devil is dead. And all his evil angels died. Would our spiritual life be easier? You may say yes, "It surely would." Are you sure that it would be easier?

There would still be funerals. There would still be floods, tornadoes, car crashes, heart attacks. Houses would still burn down or get eaten up with termites. We would still smash our thumb with the hammer. Pollution would still poison our world. Would temptation cease? Would all of us who struggle with our weight suddenly stop eating potato chips?

So what would actually change? Perhaps very little. We don't really need a personal devil, because the truth is that we furnish our own. Now, hear me through on this. The devil gets way too much credit for the evil that man generates through himself. We are capable of evil ourselves. Something happened there in that tranquil Garden of Eden that made man a genetic sinner. You can read this in the Bible in James 1:14, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” What draws him away? The devil? No, he's actually drawn away of his own lust. You do it yourself. Temptation is locked into our DNA and can only be removed when the Lord comes into our hearts. We do not need a personal devil. What we need is a personal Saviour.

It is true that the devil is our enemy. Seventh-day Adventists believe that the devil is real, he is alive, and he adds to the complication of temptation of course, but we ourselves are often just as much or more so involved in our own personal spiritual ruination. It's our problem because we are drawn away by our own lust, and enticed. We have met the enemy and the enemy is us!

There was a man who went on a diet. "You gotta lose some weight!" He was so serious about the diet that he even changed the route that he drove his car to work so that he would not pass the donut shop. But, one morning he came in the office carrying a dozen fresh hot donuts. And, everybody said, "I thought you were on a diet. I thought you were not going to eat any more donuts." He said, "Well, God must have wanted me to have these donuts this morning, because I accidentally drove by the bakery and the sign said: 'Hot Now!' And I just had to pull in. And I prayed, 'Lord, if you want me to have a fresh delicious donut, help me to find an empty parking space right in front of the donut shop. It's up to you, Lord.' And lo and behold, the seventh time I drove around the donut shop, there was an empty space just for me! So I bought a dozen."

Do you understand we need to protect ourselves from ourselves? We don't need a personal devil, we need a personal Savior. Do you know what part of yourself is the most dangerous? It's your thoughts.

There is a famous scene in Peter Pan. Peter pan is in the children's bedroom. They have already seen him fly and they want to fly. They practiced flying and it doesn't work. They tried jumping off the bed and it doesn't work. And they wished they could fly, but all their efforts result in failure. Finally John said, "How do you do it?" And Peter Pan answered: "You just think lovely, wonderful thoughts and they lift you up in the air." Well, there is some truth to that. If you think nasty, lustful, evil thoughts, they will drag you down. And if you think noble, heavenly thoughts of Jesus, they will lift you up. We are no more than what we think about every day. The only way to defeat evil thoughts in your mind is to replace them with good thoughts.

You see, the mind is a garden that could be cultivated to produce the harvest that we desire. The mind could be likened to a workshop where the important structure of life and eternity are fabricated. The mind could be likened to an armory where we forge the weapons for our victory or our destruction. The mind could be likened to a battlefield where all the decisive battles of life are either won or lost in the mind.

If we can extend the analogy of power a little bit further: let's suppose Jesus is our 1000 megawatt power station. Let's assume that. And He's putting out 1 million volts of electricity. Would that be helpful to us? Well, it might not. If every receptacle in your house had one million volts and you plugged in your toaster, would that be good? No. We would need 120 volts to run our light bulbs or else we would need light bulbs that required a million volts to operate.

In the spiritual realm, do we need a transformer to step God's power down to our level, or do we ourselves need to be transformed up to His level? Well, the Bible answers that question in Romans 12:2, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

How do you get that transforming power? By renewing your thoughts, your mind. So, we don't want to change God's power and transform it down to our level, what we want to do is to change our potential so that we can fit in with His awesome power. And we want to be transformed. By changing our thoughts we elevate our potential for using God's mighty power.

The seventh Bible principle to avoid power failure in your life:

7. Give your new energy to His Service.

Now, you may say, "How does that help me to get more power in my life?" Matthew Chapter10 (5-13) provides the answer. Jesus sent out the 12 disciples. And, more power comes when you use the power you have for God's work. By using God's power and energy for others you will have more power for yourself. When you help someone else you help yourself. If you use the power that you have in God's work, and by using God's power and His energy to help others, you are going to have more power and more spiritual strength in your life. When you help somebody else, you help yourself.

The eighth Bible principle to avoid power failure in your life:

8. Try hard! Give it your Best.

Mark 12:30, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” We've got to try. It's not going to be easy. If you want to have victory in your life, then you have to try. Every day Jesus stands knocking at our heart's door. Every day we must reconnect to God's power. You must invite Him into your heart every day. You can't just do it once. You may say, "Back in 1998 I invited Him into my life." No! You've got to do it every day. Just because you ate supper yesterday does not mean you will be strong today. Our spiritual being can be likened to our physical bodies. Every day we must take on a new allotment of fuel. Every day we must invite Jesus into our heart. This requires daily effort. Daily commitment. We find victory only as we starve the old nature and we keep feeding the new nature. That's how we get victory.

You see, different behavior will never come by indifferent effort. We must have hard stern efforts with self. There will be tough, rigid and strict struggles but never quit trying. “A noble, all-round character is not inherited. It does not come to us by accident. A noble character is earned by individual effort through the merits and grace of Christ. God gives the talents, the powers of the mind; we form the character. It is formed by hard, stern battles with self. Conflict after conflict must be waged against hereditary tendencies. We shall have to criticize ourselves closely, and allow not one unfavorable trait to remain uncorrected." - EG White, Christ's Object Lessons, p. 331.1 Never quit trying. The last shot may give us the victory. Resist for 5 more minutes. This is often the difference between defeat and victory. Do not get tired and stop trying. Try hard.

The ninth Bible principle to avoid power failure in your life:

9. Visualize Yourself as Being Victorious.

Think about yourself as being a victorious person, a person with spiritual strength in your life. On one occasion Michelangelo turned to his fellow artists and said with frustration in his voice, "Why do you keep filling gallery after gallery with endless pictures on the one theme of Christ in weakness, Christ on the cross, and most of all, Christ hanging dead?" he asked. "Why do you concentrate on the passing episode as if it were the last work, as if the curtain dropped down there on disaster and defeat? That dreadful scene lasted only a few hours. But to the unending eternity Christ is alive; Christ rules and reigns and triumphs!"

Michelangelo was right. Even though the cross is vitally important because of the redemption Jesus accomplished for us there, we must not emphasize His death to the exclusion of His resurrection victory. We should think of Him now in His glorified state in heaven. Picture the all powerful Christ on His Eternal Throne.

Think of yourself a winner against temptation. Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

The tenth Bible principle to avoid power failure in your life:

10. Be Alert and be Vigilant.

1 Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

So watch the little things. One day last month, in our back yard, a large spruce tree fell down with a crash. It had a power failure sort of speak. So, I went over to that spruce tree and looked at it. I found out that there was no wind that morning. No car crashed into the tree. It just toppled down. There was no wind and no earthquake. WHY did it fall? I examined the tree only to discover that it was rotten on the inside.

I will tell you that in life, power failure starts with a small lie, a small drink of beer, or forsaking church attendance for the wooded trail or the TV. Long before our feet carry us where we ought not to go a small thought has taken root in our heart. Quickly nip that evil thought. Hide God's word in your heart which will make it sin proof. Psalm 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Don't go one inch down the path of a bad life, but go toward Jesus. Our life is like a fresh new sheet of paper. You've noticed that it is much easier to tear a piece of paper along the line in which it has originally been folded. Keep your paper as crisp and new as possible. If you never turn on that pornographic site the first time, the temptation will not be much to resist it tomorrow. Each fold in our sheet of paper makes a power failure more inescapable.

Are you an overcome Christian or an overcoming Christian? You can experience power in your life by these ten steps. Ask God to prevent power failure in your life and give you the horsepower of His mighty Strength. And He will do it. And you can live the Christian life. But it takes time to be holy. It takes time to spend with Jesus.

• Recognize that within yourself, there is no power.
• Know that Jesus is your source of power.
• Receive Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour.
• Ask for God's power.
• Make Jesus the foundation of all that you do.
• Recognize your enemy.
• Give your new energy to His service.
• Try Hard – Give it your best.
• Visualize yourself as being victorious.
• Be alert and be vigilant.