God Of Power

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? You doing alright today? Oh, I know somebody’s saying, “Don’t ask, you shouldn’t have asked me. I should have stayed in bed.” [chuckle] I know there are days like that, aren’t they? Well, you can’t choose your circumstances, but you can choose your attitude toward the circumstances. Have you discovered that? You may not be feeling very good about the way things are going around you but thank God, your heart can be full of peace and joy because of the indwelling Holy Spirit and your attitude toward circumstances makes you a victor over them. Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest by us the perfume of His knowledge in every place. God wants you to be His perfume under pressure. So I pray God that although things may not be going too well for some of you, His Holy Spirit may make you a victor in and through the situation because of the Lord Jesus and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit of God. God bless you.

Hey, we’re looking at 1 Timothy 6:16, “To Him be honor and power everlasting.” We’re just about finishing that 16th verse. The last time we got together we talked about honoring God, do you remember? Now, he said, “To Him be honor and power everlasting.”

I wanna stop here briefly, but long enough to emphasize the fact that you and I will only win in life when we learn to depend upon God’s power while obeying Him. I think it’s a mistake to sit around and sing yourself into sanctified senility just depending on God to work. Charles G. Finney had a whole section in one of his books about that, he said, “Revival is the work of men as well as the work of God.” He said, “If the farmers acted like some religious people do, they would starve the world to death. No, the farmer has to get out there and plow the land and cultivate it and plant the seed and take care of it and then the harvest comes.” That was Charles G. Finney’s illustration concerning our part in the process of spiritual renewal.

I think you and I need to learn this lesson. Yes, God expects me to do my duty, but God expects me while doing my duty to depend upon Him. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,” saith the Lord. The ancients learned to pray and said, “Lord, our eyes are upon Thee, neither know we what to do. Help us, O Lord our God, for we have no might nor power against this multitude that comes against us.” That’s the ancient king of Israel praying. To do what God asks you to do while depending on His power to see it through. Our Lord Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in Heaven and on earth, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”

His Presence and His authority is linked to our obedience in getting out the Gospel and in nurturing believers. You evangelize and then you teach to observe, there are two things to do as our Lord Jesus commanded. And His Presence and His power are connected with our obedience. Peter the Apostle said, “We are His witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given unto them that obey Him.” Obedience is connected with an experience of the Presence of God.

I’ve often said to people, “You obey God in one thing.” Now, most of us have a long list of unfinished business with God, things that we’ve said to ourselves, “I gotta get at that some day.” Isn’t it true? Everybody listening to me right now has at least one thing you know you ought to do if you’re really going to obey God. And so I’ve often said to people, “Just do one thing that you know you should do to obey God. Whatever that one thing is, just do it and you will find yourself spiritually renewed and strengthened and quickened and the Presence of God real as you obey Him.”

I had to learn that the hard way many years ago as a young pastor, I’d gotten crosswise of another individual in the town where I was ministering and I had wronged him, I knew I had. He knew that I knew. And so it went on. There were some months actually when my own soul was dry. I don’t know how the dear people ever stood it, my sermons didn’t have much juice on them, I know that.

Finally, I came to the end of myself on it and I said, “Oh God, if you’ll help me, I’ll get this thing straightened out.” I remember praying about it one morning. And so I left my study and went out on the street, and who did I run into, but that particular man? I said, “I have to talk with you.” He said, “Well, I have to pay a few bills, I’m in town to pay some bills, and as soon as I’m finished I’ll come and see you.” So soon I heard his footsteps coming in the church and into my study. There we were, the two of us alone in that church. And I said, “I’m sorry, I want you to forgive me.” And we knelt and prayed and cried together, and our hearts were right. The following Sunday, dear friends, God met me as I preached in power. Once again, I had to learn that the hard way. I hope you don’t have to learn it the hard way.

Beloved, God’s Presence is real when you obey Him. Power comes when you dare to obey God on a matter. Alright? No, I am not one that believes you should tell everything to everybody about yourself. There are some things that are just between you and God, and you’ll carry them with you as your own business between you and God, as long as you live. I’m against religious chauvinism and exhibitionism. I don’t believe that honors the Lord. But where there is something that God tells you you should do, a debt you should pay, a relationship you should straighten out, a tithe you should begin to invest in God’s work, whatever it is, I don’t know. But where there’s something God’s Holy Spirit whispers to you to do, then go do it and you’ll find His Presence preciously real as a result. So, he says, power and honor and power everlasting.

Stop here long enough to realize there’s never any end to these things about God. Never any end to the blessing that comes when you honor God. Never any end to the power that He pours in your life when you obey Him. Always, always, always and always. Forever and forever and forever. And after the millions of years have rolled by and you and I are in the glory, we’ll still be enjoying honoring God and seeing the workings of His power. Hallelujah for that.

Now, some of you feel weak. Just a little detour here. Some of you feel awfully weak, physically weak, some of you are. And you can’t get about as you once did. Arthritis has anchored you, heart trouble has slowed you down, nearly to the stopping point, some other illness or weakness has faced you. Or you may feel terribly weak spiritually, and in the face of temptations that come your way, you say to yourself, “I don’t know what I shall ever do. It seems I can’t ever gain the victory over these things.” Weakness. What do you do about that?

Let me turn you to what the Apostle Paul says, “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, but He said to me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly… ” Paul says, “Most gladly, therefore will I rather glory in my infirmity.” That’s another word for weakness. “I’ll rather glory in my weakness, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For when I am weak then by His grace I’m strong.” That’s Paul talking. Did he have times when he was weak? Yes. Did he have times when he prayed and nothing seemed to happen? Yes. What did happen? God whispered, “My grace is sufficient. My strength,” God says, “Is made perfect in your weakness.” And God has a way of making you strongest at the point where humanly you’re the weakest.

Have you gotten hold of that yet? God has a way of making you strongest, where humanly you’re the weakest. Oh, let Him strengthen you today. His power. I say to people who are striving against liquor or tobacco or drugs, or whatever it is, “You’ll never take a smoke or lift a glass to your lips when you’re praying, ‘Jesus, help me now.’ Call Him up. Call on His name and He’ll hear you.” Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Call unto Me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. You will never, never be defeated, either by temptation or the opposition forces of Satan in any way, when you are calling on Jesus for help. Will you remember that?

Yes, I feel weak, just as you do many times. We don’t have any might nor power of our own. No wisdom of our own. “Not that we are able as of ourselves, sufficient as of ourselves, to think anything as of ourselves,” Paul says, “But our sufficiency is of God, Who hath made us able ministers of the new covenant.” God can make you able. This is the truth that you can rest upon and rejoice in as you go on through the days and nights that lie ahead. No, we are not sufficient. No, we can’t even think as we should. But yes, God is sufficient and He’s able to make us able. Able ministers of the new covenant. Blessed truth, isn’t it? Hallelujah. [chuckle]

So glad I can depend on God, aren’t you? Oh, yes. Now, we’re just gonna get started in 1 Timothy 6:17. Time will run out before we get into it. But now Paul changes the subject. Well, he comes back to the subject, actually, because in verse 10 he said, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” And so he says in verse 17, “Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches, but trust in the living God Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Tell them that they should do good and they be rich in good works and ready to distribute and willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come.” Well, charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded.

A millionaire said to me, oh, four, five years ago now, I guess, as I sat by his desk (We’re good friends and he does me the honor of telling me the truth [chuckle] about how he feels.) He sat there, he looked at me, he says, “You know, Bob, when you get as rich as I am, sometimes you just sit in for Jehovah, you just sit in for the Deity and you think you can tell everybody what to do.” [chuckle] Well, we both chuckled a little, but he was telling the truth. High-minded means you get to a place where you think you can tell everybody else what to do because if ‘I pay I say’ is the old rule. Well, beloved, it doesn’t work that way with God. We still have to come back and honor God, no matter how much or how little we may have. We get at this verse again the next time we get together.

Father God, today may we honor Thee and may we trust in Thee, not in ourselves. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!