“A Matter of Power”
About six years ago, something terrible happened to man named Sid Taylor and his wife Christy. It seems that one afternoon, Sid was underneath Christy’s car working on the steering linkage, when the jack that was holding the front end up suddenly gave way and the chassis of the car came crashing down on Sid’s chest. Not being able to breathe, he couldn’t call for help so he frantically kicked his toolbox over with his feet. Christy heard all the noise and ran from the kitchen to the garage and found her husband trapped underneath the car. Terrified, she ran back into the kitchen and called 911 for help. Sadly, before the fire and rescue squad arrived, Sid had already died of asphyxiation.
And only six months later, a very similar tragedy occurred. A man was putting an exhaust system on his truck in the garage when, again the jack slipped and the truck came down on him. He was able to get out one short yell for help; his wife heard his yell and came running to see what was wrong. When she came into the garage, she saw that the truck had fallen on her husband and he was only minutes away from death-- she didn’t run for the phone to call 911......nor did she go across the street to get the neighbors to help her. None of these common sense thoughts crossed her mind, she simply grabbed hold of the truck’s bumper, and this forty-six year old woman lifted the front of that truck up high enough for her husband to roll out from underneath it! Thanks to his wife, the man survived this incident with only two broken ribs and a whole new respect for the woman he’d been married to for twenty five years.
Needless to say, it required an awesome amount of power to save this man’s life--where did this power come from? Sure, it came from God.. But a lot of unspiritual people would tell me; Dwight, that’s not a miracle--- God didn’t do that-haven’t you ever heard of adrenaline? They can even go as far as to explain that it is a hormone secreted by the adrenal gland located just above each kidney. That this particular hormone is secreted all the time but an extra amount is injected into the system in times of distress. And large quantities of this chemical could sometimes provide a person with almost super-human strength. After they have done their best to explain this in medical and scientific terminology, I would just smile and nod my head in agreement and say; just as I said, God did it!
Now, why did I tell you both stories? Well, because the power to save was present in both instances, but it was only summoned in the second. The first lady looked at the car on her husband and used her head “knowing” that she couldn’t pick the car up and tried to get help somewhere else. The second lady saw her husband dying underneath his truck and knew only one thing; that truck was going to move. And with that attitude and faith, the truck did indeed move and her husband was saved.
In the same way that most all of us have this extra boost of potential strength within our grasp through adrenaline, we also have another form of power available to us as Christians; power that is far beyond our capability even to comprehend. But, just like that first lady that failed to save her husband because she didn’t realize that this power was available, many Christians allow themselves to become victims of circumstance instead of claiming this power of God and becoming victorious through Christ.
Jesus told some Sadducees one day; “You are in error because you do not know the scriptures nor the power of God.” I want to suggest to you that we too sometimes have the same problem.
This morning we are going to talk about this power and how, if we allow it to, can change our lives in ways we would have never thought possible.
1Corinthians 4:20 says; “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk....but of power.” You know, this one verse speaks volumes to us Christians today... We find ourselves talking to each other about how much we wish we could do something good for the Kingdom--how we want desperately to be soul winners for Christ and to become Christ-like ourselves. But we excuse ourselves from serving God in this manner and we give up on becoming Christ-like, saying that we don’t posses the right spiritual gifts to witness. Besides, we don’t even have the spiritual strength to conquer our own sinful nature.
Friends, the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk or excuses, it’s a matter of POWER. Not our power, mind you because we know that our power is limited--but His power has no limits. And you know, there is a key to unlocking this power of God....and that key is faith. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is; “...being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
Time and time again in the scriptures we see that without faith, it is impossible to access this power. And without this power from God, we are powerless against the devil.
We will take a look at Mark 9:14-29. Here, I want to show you something that Jesus used as an object lesson for the disciples and for us. Let me give you some back ground behind this particular instance that we will be studying: The day before, Jesus had chosen Peter, James and John out of the twelve......and He took them with Him up on a mountain where He was transfigured in their presence. They saw their Teacher glorified before their eyes---this was a very special --not to mention exclusive spiritual experience for the three disciples. As they came back down the mountain, their faces still somewhat radiant from the Glory of the transfigured Lord, they were confronted with an interesting situation.... And here’s where we pick up; vs. 14-29
14 When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. 15 As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.
16 “What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.
17 A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. 18 Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
19 “O unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
20 So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
23 ”‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”
26 The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.
28 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”
29 He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” [1]
The disciples were perplexed as to why they couldn’t drive this particular evil spirit out of this tormented child. Why couldn’t they? Weren’t they given adequate power to do this in the name of Jesus? When Jesus first chose the twelve and sent them out to the world, He didn’t send them empty handed because in Matthew 10:1 it says; “And when He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal ALL manner of sickness and ALL manner of disease.”....... And in Luke 10:19 Jesus tells them; “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy.....”
So the scriptures tell us that this power had been made available to them, but.... where was it when they needed it? Well, to better discern the answer to this question, let’s see what Jesus says; Vs 28 “After Jesus had gone indoors, the disciples asked Him privately, ‘why couldn’t we drive it out?’ He replied; ‘this kind can come out only by prayer.’”
Now, we just read this entire passage about the healing of this possessed boy........did you hear me read anything about Jesus saying a prayer to drive this demon out? So, what did Jesus mean then when He said that it can only come out by prayer?
You see, throughout the discipleship, Jesus had been teaching them the importance of a very close communion with the Father. Through prayer, fasting, study of the word, and meditation; this close communion was made possible. But in order to have this kind of connection with God, the mind and heart has to be free of anything else that would get in the way. That’s why Jesus says that when you bring your offering to the Lord, if you have anything against anyone, then you should leave your gift on the altar, go and reconcile yourself with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. In other words, there are things that could seriously interfere in our prayer life and with our relationship with the Lord. Feelings of hatred, the harboring of other sin that we allow to reign within us.....these things build a wall of sorts that separate us from God--limiting the amount of help and power that He can give us.
And that was the case with the nine disciples that couldn’t access the power to drive the demon out; their hearts were polluted with jealously of Peter, James and John. They spent more time thinking about how they had been slighted than they did praying and staying close to God. Therefore, their prayer lives were crippled and they lost that vital connection with the Lord. And with that connection...... they lost the power.
I have a little magnet on my refrigerator that Southern Adventist University sent me that says; “Prayer brings power.” And this is a very true statement because our God’s power becomes available to us only as we become one with Him. An active prayer life, as well as diligent study of His word, are essential components which form the foundation of our relationship with God.
This principle is so vividly expressed to us as we look at the life of Jesus and how often He was in prayer and how well He was familiar with the scriptures......this is how He maintained His relationship with the Father and as a result came POWER: power to heal, power to minister, power to drive out evil spirits, and POWER TO SAVE.
I don’t know how many of you use batteries that often, but they have come up with a quick way to see how much life is left in your battery. It’s called a power strip, to activate it, we need only to touch two dots on opposite ends of the battery and we will soon see the amount of power we have left. If we, as Christians were equipped with such a device, what would yours be reading right now? Well, if you don’t regularly seek guidance through the study of God’s word.....and your prayer life is fleeting to non-existent.....then chances are your power strip is reading on the lower end of the scale.
You see, without that power strip on the side of the battery, we can’t tell just by looking how much power is in it can we? I mean it “looks” like a good battery but what counts is not what we see, but what’s on the inside...
And so it is with us; here we are, all dressed in our best clothes in church where we ought to be on Sabbath----we all basically look like good, fully charged batteries.....but are we? Do some of us have a “form of Godliness but yet deny the power there in?” I’ll go out on a limb and answer yes to that question because every single one of us here today has a form of Godliness, but are in some way denying the power.
And let me tell you friends, God has an unlimited amount of power that He is just waiting to put at our disposal, but we have to believe that it’s there. And, if we don’t believe, all that power is useless to us because we don’t have the faith to access it.
Just think about the children of Israel for example, and how God worked miracle after miracle while they were in Egypt and how He accompanied them in that mass exodus through the desert in a pillar of smoke by day and fire by night. Not to mention how He rained down bread from heaven, gave them water from a rock, and even parted the Red Sea. All these things were accomplished only by the power of God for His people.
The children of Israel saw first-hand this magnificent power of God.... but yet, when they came to the outer edges of the promised land and heard the report from the scouts that the land that they were supposed to “take possession of “ was well-fortified and inhabited by giants, they lost their faith in God and in His power to give them the victory. As a result of their lack of faith, they wandered around in the desert forty years until those who refused to trust God ultimately died in their fear.
Like the Israelites of old, we too have seen the magnificent power of God~ we have witnessed miracle after miracle. But, we are still seemingly unconvinced of His power to give us the victory over some “giants” in our own lives.
Friends, 2Timothy 1:7 tells us that; “God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power..” Can you imagine how much we as individuals could grow spiritually....and how much we could accomplish for the kingdom of God if we really took full advantage of the power that He makes available to us?
Brothers and sisters, a lot of Christians today have the mentality of that first lady that we talked about at the beginning of this message; she didn’t believe that she had within her reach the power to lift that car off of her husband.....so she didn’t even try and he died.
Is there something in your life that you don’t think can be lifted off of you? Are you struggling with a sin that you haven’t been able to budge? Whether it’s smoking, drinking, prejudice, or whatever it may be, I’ve got to tell you that I know Someone who is able....and He is not only able, but anxious for you to give up trying to do it yourself and trust in Him and His power with all your heart, soul, and mind. Yes, “with man this is impossible, but with God ALL things are possible.”-
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[1]The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.
