We serve a God who rules over all. And
we can rest tonight because God isn't
going to take the night off. He's in
charge. We are not trapped in some
aimless universe, spinning on a doomed
planet, living in a meaningless life,
and dying a hopeless death. We are not
riding on a runaway clattering train.
Our God is Jehovah, and there is none
like him. He is absolute. He is eternal
and all powerful and utterly sovereign.
What would happen if for a single
moment, Almighty God would withdraw his
hand from the universe? It would fly off
into oblivion and chaos. He is the glue
that holds it all together. If God can
hold the world together, I think he can
together. Sovereign is a word that means
God does everything on
purpose. It is a word that inspires a
lot of headlines these days. You know
this word perhaps better than you think
you do. You often spot it in the
financial pages of the newspapers, say
about Saudi Arabia's sovereign funds or
about sovereign investors who gobble up
prime equities in the stock market.
Sometimes you'll read about Russia's
sovereign credit rating or about
Norway's sovereign wealth fund. With the
surge in refugees around the world,
debates are raging about the importance
of sovereign borders. And of course,
here in the United States, the matter of
border security and sovereignty, one of
our most vexing
issues. How strange that a biblical word
should show up in so many
headlines. According to the Bible, there
is only one who is truly sovereign, and
that's Almighty God. But what does that
mean? The English word sovereign means
having unlimited power or authority. It
comes from the prefix savv which means
over and it's coupled with the word
reign. So when it comes to sovereign the
word means to have total control. When
it comes to finances and politics the
term has to do with a nation's right of
self-determination of answering to no
higher authority than themselves of
being independent in their power. It's a
big deal in many cultures today. But to
say God is sovereign is to simply
declare that he is God elevated above
the highest authority in all the
universe and possessing not only
infinite power but infinite right,
infinite rule and infinite
reign. He is the most
high doing what he wills with the
purposes of
life. He is in charge. He is the head of
the armies of heaven so that no one can
stay his hand or say to him why are you
doing what you are doing. To say God is
sovereign is to say that he's the
governor over all the nations and the
commander of all history. He's the king
of king. He's the lord of lords. And
thinking of God as our sovereign king
and lord answers one of the biggest
questions in the human heart. And here
it is. Who's in charge?
That's what Winston Churchill wanted to
know. Throughout the turbulence of the
1930s, Churchill feared no one in the
British government was taking Adolf
Hitler and the Nazi threat seriously.
Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin seemed
unable to face the challenges of leading
England. And Churchill went around
fuming about Baldwin's inadequacy and
quoting a little poem that said, "Who's
in charge of the clattering train?"
That's a question that is frequently
asked today. Is there anybody in
charge? That question determines what
goes on in our homes. It has a great
deal to do with what goes on in our
schools and what goes on in our culture.
Who's in control here? Sometimes you
hear this question in the marketplace,
in the workplace, and on a larger scale
in our cities and in the life of our
nation. Who's in charge? If we're
honest, this question haunts us on a
global level. I mean, not a day passes
without our wanting to stand up and
shout, "Who's in control of this clattering
clattering
train?" How we answer that question
determines to a great deal how our lives
and our future plays
out. So, when I say God is sovereign, I
mean he's in charge of everything. He's
infinitely elevated above the highest
creature. He's the most high God, the
Lord of heaven and earth, subject to no
one, influenced by no one, independent
and free in his own being. He does as he
pleases, not only as he pleases, always
as he pleases, everywhere as he pleases,
and forever as he
pleases. No one and nothing can hinder
him, compel him, thwart him, or stop him.
him.
But I must tell you that while this is a
wonderful truth to ponder and celebrate,
there is no aspect of the attributes of
God that causes more anger and stirs
more debate than the teaching of the
sovereignty of God. You can take a knife
and cut it right down through
evangelicalism and there's a different
opinion on the sovereignty of God on
both sides of the mark that you make.
That's why we need a strong biblical
understanding of this
subject. Working on this chapter, I
jotted down nearly 50 key passages on
the sovereignty of God. And I didn't
even scratch the surface. I'll just give
you four or five of them and you'll see
what I'm talking
about. The Lord reigns. Let the people
tremble. He dwells between the cherubam.
Let the earth be moved.
The Lord has established his throne in
heaven and his kingdom rules over
all. But our God is in heaven. He does
whatever he pleases. I like that
one. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does
in heaven and in earth, in the seas and
in all deep places. All of these verses
and so many others convey the same thing
that God is in charge. He is on his
throne and he always will be on his
throne. He rules and he reigns in the
affairs of men worldwide. From history
to prophecy, from sea to sea, from time to
to
eternity. In my library, I have a set of
books that contain every single sermon
Charles Haden Spurgeon ever
preached. It is one of the largest
collections of writings from a single
person in the history of literature.
Spurgeon, who didn't live past 60,
preached in London in the 1800s, and he
was unbelievably prolific. He was
sublimely eloquent. One of the volumes
that I have in my set includes an index
of all the subjects he covered in the
message that he preached. I looked under
the subject of sovereignty, and I shook
my head in amazement. He must have
preached on the sovereignty of God every
other Sunday.
He was enamored with this truth and he
constantly proclaimed that Almighty God
oversees our daily lives and our present
world and all the tides and trends of
history. Maybe that's why so many people
want to hear him because when they went
to church on Sunday wondering who was in
charge, they came away with this
absolute confidence that we serve a God
who rules over all and we can rest
tonight because God isn't going to take
the night off. He's in charge.
There is no attribute, said
Spurgeon, more comforting to his
children than the doctrine of divine
sovereignty. Under the most adverse
circumstances, in the most severe
troubles, they believe that sovereignty
has ordained their afflictions, that
sovereignty overrules them, that
sovereignty will sanctify them. It is
God upon the throne that we love to
preach. It is God upon his throne in
whom we trust. That's just a little
excerpt from one of his sermons on
sovereignty. I don't know that there's
any truth in all the world that should
comfort us more in this day in which we
live than this, that God is in control.
And someone says, "Well, why don't we
talk about that anymore in our
churches?" Well, first of all, we don't
even talk about the Bible anymore in a
lot of our churches, but this is a
biblical truth, and it's at odds with
what's going on in our world today. It's
because this is the day of humanism.
This is the era when people want
autonomy and independence and the
absolute right to do whatever they want
to do whenever they want to do it.
Whatever feels good. We attend seminars
that tell us whatever we can conceive,
we can believe, and whatever we can
believe, we can achieve and receive. If
we just give humanity a little bit more
time, we're told all of the ills and
problems and difficulties of life will
be resolved because man has become his
own God.
But permit me to ask a question this
man? Is the world thriving with peace
and prosperity under your so-called
human sovereignty? Or is it descending
into disorder and instability and chaos?
Is the world cleaner or more polluted?
Is it more peaceful or more threatened?
Is it more orderly or more violent? Is
it more prosperous or teetering on the
verge of bankruptcy? You would think
after all the pain we have felt as a
nation, after all the hurt and anguish
we have felt as a world, after all the
problems we have experienced, that
somebody might just ask, "Is it possible
we're going the wrong way?"
We started down this path as early as
the book of
Genesis when Nimrod got the people
together and said in effect, "We don't
need God coming down to talk to us.
We'll just build our own tower up to
God. We'll do our own thing." And they
brought everyone together and launched
their project and went to work. And
something odd happened. Suddenly, one
day they went to work and no one could
understand anybody else because God
reached down and confounded their
language. God was in control.
If we keep reading in Genesis, we come
to the story of Joseph. As a teenager,
he was abused by his brothers who threw
him in a pit and sold him into slavery.
They did everything they could to erase his
his
memory. Years passed and one day in the
sovereignty of God, they faced a severe
famine in their land. They journeyed
down to Egypt to get their food. And
guess who was handing out the food?
It was Joseph who somehow had become
prime minister of the greatest empire on
earth in those days. But it wasn't
somehow. It was
sovereignty. Those poor boys thought
they had been had. Here they were coming
to get food and running into the brother
that they had betrayed and now thought was
was
dead. Joseph looked him in the eye and
gave this little speech. You meant evil
against me, but God meant it for good in
order to bring it about as it is this
day to save many people alive. Now
therefore, do not be afraid. Joseph
said, "You tried to hurt me. You tried
to destroy me. You tried to kill me. But
God was in charge. And God oversaw all
of this. And he brought me to this place
not only to be the savior of all of you,
but to be the savior of all of Egypt.
Because Joseph became the prime minister
of Egypt and doled out the food during
the years of famine. Turn over to the
book of Exodus and listen. While Pharaoh
commands all the Hebrew male children to
be drowned in the Nile River to reduce
the population of the Jews. But the Lord
said as it were, I'll tell you what I'm
going to do. I'll use the Nile River to
preserve a baby who will become the
liberator of my
people. And there in a pitched basket on
the Nile River, while Pharaoh intended
to kill these precious babies, God hid a
baby who would be named Moses. Almost as
if he were playing a joke on
Pharaoh. Many years later, God said,
"Let my people go." To which Pharaoh
arrogantly responded, "Who is the Lord
that I should obey his voice and let
Israel go?
I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel
Israel
go. And that earned him 10 plagues and
the death of the firstborn in every one
of his
families. Followed by a route at the Red
Sea. Somehow the stormy Red Sea, which
Pharaoh thought had trapped his enemies,
became the avenue of their deliverance
and the watery tomb of Pharaoh's army.
But it wasn't somehow. It was
sovereignty. God was in charge.
Isn't it incredible to read the history
of God's sovereignty in the affairs of
men? Hmon had it in his heart to destroy
the Jews and to obliterate the influence
of God. He built gallows on which he
intended to hang
Mordeayi. But somehow the tables were
turned and Hmon was impelled on the
gallows he had built for Morayi. But it
wasn't somehow. It was sovereignty. The
God of heaven was showing us who's in control.
Looking at it from the perspective of
history, not just in biblical days, but
throughout all the history of the world,
wherever humankind has tried his best to
prove he's in control, he has been
frustrated and thwarted again and again.
Almighty God has said, "I am the Lord. I
rule in the heavens and in the earth and
in the hearts of
men." He is the sovereign God. And when
I see what's happening across this
country, I have to turn off the
television, lay aside the newspaper,
open my Bible, bow my head, and say, "I
know the one who's in
charge." The biblical teaching of God's
sovereignty stirs me when I think about
it and when I look at the fact that
there aren't any answers anyplace else.
This is in the lap of the
Almighty. And I come away with three
affirmations which I want to leave with
you to take home in your heart today. If
this is true, if what I'm saying is
true, what should my response be to the
fact that almighty God is in charge?
That when you look into the heavens, the
throne is
occupied, that God doesn't go on
vacations. He never sleeps. He never
takes his hand off the control
level. So, how should I respond to that?
Well, first of all, I've written down,
because he is sovereign, I will reverence
reverence
him. The first affirmation about God's
sovereignty is this. Because he is
sovereign, I will give him reverence.
I've had the opportunity of sharing the
word of God in the presence of some
national leaders over the years that
I've been in the ministry. That's a very
scary thing when you're asked to speak
in front of a national leader.
But I want you to suppose with me and
take all of the nuance out of what's
going on in our world today. This is
this is kind of not normal what's
happening right now. But just let's kind
of get back to the normal and think with
me through this
illustration. Suppose I were preaching
and a colleague came to the platform and
handed me a note and it said, "The
president of the United States has just
arrived unexpectedly and he wants to
attend your service today." If he said
that, do you know what I would do? I
would take a little break from my sermon
and I would say to the crowd, "Let's all
welcome the president of the United
States." And regardless of who the
president happened to be at that moment,
and regardless of whether we agreed or
disagreed with his or her policies, if
we are the right kind of people, we
would stand in applaud. Why? Because we
respect the office of the president of
our nation. And the Bible tells us to
So if we can summon the courtesy to
respect the human position, no matter
who the leader might be, what should be
our attitude about confessing Jesus
Christ as Lord of Lords and King of
Kings? The Bible says the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of
wisdom. And the concept of fearing the
Lord troubles some people, but we're not
talking about a debilitating kind of
fear. We're talking about a
worshshipable reverence for
God. Christians were once described as
godfearing people. Do you remember those
days? Nobody even knows what that means
anymore. We seldom hear that phrase. And
perhaps it's because we've lost the
concept of the fear of the Lord. God
wants us to reverence him, to bow before
him, to fear him with healthy godly awe.
For God is sovereign and he is worthy of
our reverence and our
respect. We have tried in our culture to
bring God down to where we are because
we feel so distant from him. But I say
to you, leave God where he is and get on
your knees and reverence him. He is
And because God is
sovereign, my second affirmation is I
will respond to him in obedience. A few
pages back in this little sermon that
I'm giving you, when the Lord told the
Israelites to go, this man, this most
powerful feared man of his day, Pharaoh
said, "Listen, do you remember this?" He
said, "No, but do you know why he
disobeyed?" Here's what it says. "Who is
the Lord? that I should obey his voice
to let Israel go. I do not know the
Lord, nor will I let Israel go. And if I
were Moses, I would have said, "Son,
you're about ready to meet
him." Because Pharaoh didn't understand
or respect Jehovah, he felt free to
disobey. When people disregard God's
sovereignty, they disobey him. But let's
reverse the equation. If irreverence
produces disobedience, then surely
reverence should promote
obedience. As I open my Bible, this is
the word of a sovereign God. I can't any
longer read the Bible just as a
student. I have to read it now as a
servant. I'm not just trying to learn
what the Bible says. I'm trying to find
out what God, the sovereign of the
universe, is telling me to do. And I
have to respond with a yes, Lord.
It's interesting how you read the Bible.
If you're just reading the Bible for
more information, it won't change your
life at all. But if you read the Bible
as a servant and you say, "Lord, what do
you have for me today that you need to
communicate to my life?" Everything
changes. It's all about your
mindset. When we grasp the sovereign
authority of God in and over everything
from the broadest galaxy to the smallest
grain of sand, we gladly submit to his
will for our lives. He's the captain.
He's in
control. His eye scans the maps and he
knows what's best for us. We may not
always like the weather or the scenery
or the route, but those issues pale in
the brilliance of his sovereign face. In
the Old Testament, there's a story about
a man named Eli. He was a
priest and he had two rebellious
kids. It's embarrassing to read what
they did. And I'm not going to embarrass
all of you by giving you the details in
the service this morning. You can find
it out now that I've told you about it.
I'm sure you'll look it up this
afternoon. But there in that setting in
Shiloh where these two rebellious sons
were disgracing God and their father,
there was a young boy who was serving
God in the tabernacle. And one evening
God spoke to this boy saying,
"Samuel." And Samuel said, "Speak, Lord,
for your servant hears." And the Lord
gave Samuel a message for Eli. And it
was not a good word. He told this young
boy, "Go and tell Eli what I'm telling
you." And this is what the message was.
1st Samuel 3. Behold, I will do
something in Israel at which both ears
of everyone who hear it will tingle. In
that day, I will perform against Eli all
that I have spoken concerning his house
from beginning to end. For I have told
him that I will judge his house forever.
for the iniquity which he knows because
his sons made themselves vile and he did
not restrain them.
them.
Wow. Eli gets this message and you would
have thought he would push back, maybe
ask for grace and say, "Wait a minute,
give me another chance." But according
to verse 18, Samuel told Eli everything
God said. Then Eli said
this, "It is the
Lord. Let him do what seems good to
him." In other words,
whoa, Samuel, if that's what the Lord
said, let the Lord be the
Lord. That's a pretty good sentence to
keep in mind, isn't it? Whatever happens
to us, whatever God tells us to do, we
can simply say it is the Lord. let him
do what seems good to him. Abraham said
something similar when he learned the
fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. He said,
"Shall not the judge of all the earth do
right." Ladies and gentlemen, the Lord
will do what seems good to him, and the
judge of all the earth will do right. We
get shook up by what's happening,
whether near us or far away. But the
problem is our own human perspective.
That changes when we remember that God
is in charge. He sees everything from
beginning to end. And the more we
comprehend that and the more we gladly
resign ourselves to his will and obey
what he says and we come to the place
where we can say it is the Lord. Let him
do what seems good to him. He will do
what is right. He will always do what is
best because God is sovereign. I will
reverence him and I will respond to him
in obedience. And here we are again back
to this familiar theme in the attributes
of God. Because God is sovereign, I will worship
worship
him. Here's my final
affirmation. Throughout the Old
Testament, especially at momentous times
in Israel's history, are great outbreaks
of praise. It's truly amazing if you
study the Old Testament with this in
mind. For instance, there's this one
dramatic story where King David was
trying to build a temple in the
Jerusalem for the Lord. It was the final
dream of history's great visionary. And
his dream was good, but God told him he
wasn't going to let him do it. Do you
remember that? And David was so
frustrated. He said to David, "You shall
not build me a house to dwell in." Went
on to say, "Because you have been a
shedddter of blood, you cannot build my
temple." You would have thought David
would gone off and pouted and given up
on the whole deal. But the Bible says
that David was brokenhearted. But just
for a moment, he was a resilient man.
And what did he do? He undertook the one
thing he could do, which is always the
hardest part of any building program. He
raised all the money for the project. He
personally gave from his wealth and he
appealed for funds from others. And then
they had this worship set in the midst
of that very unlikely situation. Here it
is from 1 Chronicles chapter 29. David
blessed the Lord before all the
assembly. David who wanted to build the
temple and couldn't because God wouldn't
let him do
it. And David said, "Blessed are you,
Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever
and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the
greatness, the power, and the glory, the
victory, and the majesty. For all that
is in heaven and in earth is yours.
Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you
are exalted as head over all. Both
riches and honor come from you, and you
reign over all. In your hand is power
and might, and in your hand it is to
make great and to give strength to
all. I could never have come up with
something like that when I was nursing
the wounds of a broken
dream. As King David stood that day to
collect that offering to finance one of
the great wonders of the world. He led
his people in a prayer of worship
directed to the sovereign Lord. And they
brought their offerings. And David said
in so many words, "God made you rich."
And they stood that day in a moment of
strength and power. And David said, "God
gives you strength." And they stood that
day and rejoiced. And David said, "God
puts joy in your heart. He's the
sovereign God." He understood what we're
trying to learn today that our God is
sovereign. And our response is to praise
his name and worship him and honor him
for he alone is worthy. Whatever I have,
whatever is in my heart, whatever I've
done, whatever I'm doing, God is behind
it all. I have no reason for pride. I
have every reason to bow humbly before
him in gratitude that he would be so
willing to let me be a part of what he
does. We are not trapped in some aimless
universe, spinning on a doomed planet,
living in a meaningless life and dying a
hopeless death. We are not riding on a
runaway clattering train. Our God is
Jehovah and there is none like him. He
is absolute. He is eternal and all
powerful and utterly sovereign. And when
he reigns supreme and unrivaled as our
captain, Adonai Yahwa will be your
sovereign God. Things work out in our
lives. Even if you got there because of
an accident, God has a perfect plan and
there are no accidents with
God. The family you were born in was no
accident. The country you live in, the
language you speak, the friends you
have, your weaknesses, your mistakes,
all the things that you've done, your
poor decisions, none of them are
accidents to God. The book of Romans
tells us that God works all things
together for his glory. And the word for
all things together is the word synergo.
The word from which we get our word
synergy. And synergy is when you take a
whole bunch of things and put them
together and the result is much more
than all of them could be added up to
be. There's a synergistic effect. And
when God gets involved in our lives, he
takes the good and the bad, the mistakes
and all of the things we do right, and
in his sovereign, he mixes it all
together, and he puts it together in his
plan. And according to the scripture, he
makes all things beautiful. He's the
sovereign God. You may think today, "Oh,
I have blown it so much God can never
use me." No. If you've blown it, you ask
for forgiveness, you get right, and you
wait for God's next word. And I promise
you, he's not done with you yet. He has
a purpose for you. He will take what's
wrong and somehow he will weave it
together into his plan and he will make
it right. Do you regret certain
decisions you've made? Did things not
turn out the way you had hoped? Do you
feel stuck? Do you wish you had done
things differently? There are no
accidents with God. God in his
sovereignty even overrides our sins.
Maybe you're suffering long-term
consequences of a bad mistake. Remember,
there are no accidents with God. God is
not the author of sin. So, wherever we
find ourselves and whatever we have to
deal with, we can know that God in his
infinite wisdom and in his sovereignty
has designed it for our good and to make
us like Christ and to bring him glory.
Just hang in there. You can trust God.
He's in control and he's a good God. Amen.
Amen.
Don and I are going to board a ship in
Boston that will take us to Canada and
New England. I know you feel badly for
this. This ship is enormous.
Sometimes when I go there and I stand
next to the ship and look up at it, it's
overwhelming to me that this humongous
piece of steel can
float up on the bridge of this
ship. The captain has his maps and his
charts and his navigational equipment
and he and his crew have plied these
waters many times. They know exactly
where the ship is headed. They know the
exact moments when the ship will depart.
one port and reach
another. Meanwhile, down below the
bridge, many kinds of people have booked
passage. They all think they're in
charge of their lives. Some will come to
study the Bible with me. But as I walk
around the ship, I will notice a lot of
people who in absolute certainty did not
come to study the Bible with
me. They're lost in their own pursuits
and in their own pleasures.
They're aboard that ship making their
infinite daily decisions like everybody
else. But none of that has anything to
do with the captain. None of that slows
down the ship. No matter what the
passengers do or don't do, or how
frustrated they become, or how
carelessly they live, the ship keeps
bearing down on the waves, maintaining
its pre-planned schedule and arriving at
its destination at just the right
moment. That's an inadequate
illustration of the sovereignty of God.
But somehow it helps me to remember that
God has his hand on the wheel. And the
culture may change and the storms may
rage and there may be times when I think
I'm running the show, but it's all it's
all ridiculous because up in the
wheelhouse is Almighty God and he's in
charge and the ship's going where he
wants it to go and I'm on board. And
though I might be I might be confused
sometimes about what's happening, I can
rest assured I trust the captain. I
believe he knows what he's doing and
he's in charge and he's in charge of
your life whether you like it or not,
whether you know it or not. And the
wonderful thing that happens when you
become a Christian is you come to the
place where you acknowledge that there
is a sovereign God and you realize how
wonderful and powerful that is and you
say to yourself, "Sovereign
God, be sovereign of my life. Come and
sit in the wheelhouse of my heart. Come
and be my Lord and my Savior. And when
you do that, he never ever says no. He
doesn't say, "I'm too busy." He always
comes when we invite him. But he never
comes unless we do. The sun is a
blinding star. It's
330,000 times as massive as the Earth.
About a million earths could fit inside
of the sun. Takes 8 minutes for a beam
of light and heat to travel from the sun
to the earth. Almost 93 million miles.
It arrives here right on schedule in the
exact proportion needed to sustain life
on our planet. And for many of us, just
a little bit of it shows up in May and June.
June.
The temperature at the surface of the
sun is 10,000°
10,000°
F. And scientists believe the
temperature at the core of the sun may
reach 27 million degrees. It never shuts
down, though it may occasionally flare
up. The sun is essentially a gaseous
ball of continuously occurring nuclear
explosions radiating its energy
uniformly in all directions throughout
the solar system except in May and in
June. Every second the sun produces the
same energy as about 1 trillion one
megaton bombs. To put it in tangible
terms, in one second, our sun can
produce enough energy to power human
civilization for 500,000
500,000
years. Imagine if we could collect it
and use it all. Furthermore, the sun has
enough nuclear fuel to burn for another
5 billion years. And yet, the sun is
only one medium-sized star in a universe
filled with trillions of others.
Astronomers estimate there are between
100 billion and 400 billion stars in our
galaxy. And based on images from the
Hubble Space Telescope, there may be an
additional one trillion galaxies in the
universe. It's so overwhelmingly
massive, it's hard to wrap your mind
around it.
Think of all the energy radiated from
those stars and ask
yourself, where did this energy come
from? What source of power could so
animate the universe?
Who wired the cosmos with enough voltage
to keep it glowing and burning and
spinning and functioning to the limits
of human observation or
imagination and to a seemingly endless
duration? Who did it? Where did it come
from? The Bible says, "Yours, O Lord, is
the greatness, the power, and the glory,
the victory, and the majesty. For all
that is in heaven and in earth is yours.
Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you
are exalted as head over all." And Psalm
147:5 says, "Great is our Lord and
mighty in power. His understanding is
infinite." And the choirs of heaven sing
it this way. Allelujah. Salvation and
glory and honor and power belong to our
God. It is the infinite power of God
that fuels the universe. Only God's
infinite power can so effortlessly keep
the universe humming and crackling with
energy. Awtoer once wrote these words.
He said, "Since he has at his command
all the power in the universe, the Lord
God omnipotent can do anything as easily
as anything else. All his acts are done
without effort. He expends no energy
that must be replenished." Just think of
all that I've told you about the sun and
the galaxies and the stars. All of that
energy is resident in the Lord God
Almighty. He is the source of all power.
You will say, "Pastor, I don't
understand that." And I don't either.
But I know it's true and the Bible
describes it. And while we can't
understand it, we can appreciate it and
we can apply it to our own lives. So
today, I want to just take you on this
little journey. First of all, with a bit
of an explanation of God's power in
terms that we can understand.
First of all, God can do all things.
Revelation 19:6 says, "And I heard as it
were the voice of a great multitude, as
the sound of many waters, as the sound
of mighty thunderings, saying,
Hallelujah, for the Lord God omnipotent
omnipotent
reigns." The Bible uses a unique word to
describe God. God is omnipotent. Say
that with me. God is
omnipotent. What does that mean?
Omnipotent means all powerful. Omni O Ni
is a biblical term which means all. And
we can figure out potent. Potent means
power. So omnipotent means all power.
George Frederick Handel incorporated
that into his hallelujah chorus of his
soul stirring ortorio the Messiah and
the words are so electrifying we cannot
listen to them sitting down we have to
stand up when we sing about the Lord God
omnipotent newer translations of the
Bible don't use that term they refer to
this as the almighty God omnipotent God
the Almighty God if I have a favorite
term for God I think that's it I like to
refer to him as almighty God. Sometimes
you hear that in a swear phrase, but
it's not a swear phrase. It's a worship
phrase. He's God
Almighty. He's God omnipotent. The Old
Testament refers to him this way. The
Old Testament calls God El Shadai, which
means God
Almighty. There was this guy who wrote
about the attributes of God back in the
1600s. His name is Steven
Charack. And this is what he said. He
said, "The power of God is that ability
and strength whereby he can bring to
pass whatsoever he pleases, whatsoever
his infinite wisdom can direct, and
whatsoever the infinite purity of his
will can resolve." From the first verses
in Genesis all the way through the last
page of Revelation, when we read about
the throne of God in New Jerusalem, our
attention is directed to God's
omnipotent, all powerful, almighty,
sovereign power. He can do all things.
There isn't anything you can think of
that God can't do. Number two, nothing
is too hard for God.
Luke 137 says, "With God nothing will be
impossible." Psalm 89:6 says, "For who
in the heavens can be compared to the
Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty
can be alkened to the Lord?" Daniel
says, "All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing, but God does
according to his will in the army of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. No one can restrain his hand or
say to him, "What have you
done?" In other words, God is so
powerful that no one can stop him. No
one and even ask him, "What are you
doing?" There is nothing outside the
realm of God's power. And since he has
all the power in the universe at his
command, he can do whatever he chooses.
And he does one thing as easily as he
does another. toer indicates that
nothing is harder for God than anything
else. He does everything with the same
amount of ease. Now, that's challenging
to us. Uh that's challenging for our
finite minds to grasp because we have
degrees of difficulty in what we
do. Taking a tissue from a box is easier
than opening a sealed
jar. Have you ever had your wife come
and give you a bottle of pickles or
something and say, "I can't open this.
Can you open this for me?
And hopefully you're still able to do it
because it's I mean it's a man thing. If
you can't open that jar, it's a moment
of discouragement for
you. But God has no degrees of
difficulty. He does everything with
equal ease. He is able. He holds
omnipotent energy in his hand. The
patriarch Job said it this way. I know
that you can do everything and that
there is no purpose of yours can be
withheld from you. And Jeremiah prayed,
"Oh Lord God, behold, you have made the
heavens and the earth by your great
power and outstretched arm. There is
nothing too hard for
you." Abraham and Sarah learned this
lesson when the Lord promised them a
child in their old age. And you remember
Sarah was past the age of childbearing.
She was pushing a hundred. And she
laughed at the news. And the Lord God
said,"Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? Is
anything too hard for the
Lord? The Lord Jesus echoes this truth
in the New Testament. He's discussing
the difficulty of getting people into
heaven. And he says, "It is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of God. With men, this is impossible,
but with God, all things are possible.
God can do all things and nothing is too
hard for God. Number three, God never gets
gets
tired. Isaiah 40:28 says, "Have you not
known? Have you not heard? The
everlasting God, the Lord, the creator
of the ends of the earth, neither faints
nor is weary. His understanding is
unsearchable." God never gets tired.
That brings me to the fourth thing. God
can do all things. Nothing is too hard
for God. Never does God get tired. And
here's one that's kind of interesting.
It's a question. Is there anything God
cannot do? I've already said God can do
all things. But I'm going to ask the
question again. This is not double
speak, nor am I trying to confuse you.
But I want you to understand something
that if you don't understand, somebody
will stick it to you someday in a
discussion. Whenever you get around
young people, especially college kids
who are home from their first semester
at the university, these are the kind of
questions that they ask
you. Questions like this one, can God
make a rock that is so heavy he can't
pick it
up? Everybody go, hm
h scholars love those kind of questions
because there isn't really any logical
way to discuss it. It's a perplexing
question for some people, but not for
people who know God. Questions like
these are flawed. They're logically
inconsistent. It's like asking if God
can make a square
circle. There isn't anything like that.
And the questions are self-refuting and
irrational. Whatever God does in the
exercise of his power is consistent with
who he is as a person.
For example, Titus 1:2 says, "Here's
something God cannot do. God cannot
lie." Why can't he lie? If he can do all
things, why can't he lie? Because it's
against the nature of God. And God never
does anything against his nature. In
that passage, the Apostle Paul wrote
that he was laboring for Christ in hope
of eternal life, which God, who cannot
lie, promised before time began. God
cannot lie because doing so would be
inconsistent with his
nature. Here's another one. 2 Timothy
2:13, Paul said that God cannot deny
himself. If we are faithless, he remains
faithful. He cannot deny himself. This
is a really encouraging truth. What this
truth says is it's impossible for God
not to be faithful because faithfulness
is a part of his nature and God cannot
be faithless. One more. James tells us
that God cannot be tempted by evil. Nor
does he tempt anyone else. Let no one
say when he is tempted, I am tempted by
God. For God cannot be tempted by evil,
nor does he himself tempt
anyone. God is immune from temptation
because he's holy. He is beyond
temptation's lure and he himself will
never tempt us toward evil. He may test
us to make us better, but he will never
tempt us to make us worse.
The Bible says God is omnipotent, but
his omnipotence is guided by his nature.
And it is therefore impossible for God
to lie, impossible for God to deny
himself, and impossible for God to be
tempted by evil or tempt anyone else with
with
evil. There are some
things God cannot do. He can do all
things, but he cannot do those things
with violate who he is. the explanation
of God's power. Let me talk with you for
just a moment about the evidence of his
power. How do we know that God is so
powerful? I mean, if we were going to
appear before a jury and convince them
of the power of God, what evidence would
we bring? Well, let me tell you
something. The evidence is just as wide
as the universe and just as limitless as
the galaxies. There's no way you could
ever present all the evidence for the
power of God. So, since we don't have an
infinite time and I only have a short
time for this message, I've chosen four
evidences of the power of God, maybe the
four most important ones. First of all,
the evidence of God's power in creation.
Here's what Romans says. What may be
known about God is plain.
For since the creation of the world,
God's invisible qualities, his eternal
power and divine nature have been
clearly seen being understood from what
has been made. How do we know God is
powerful? When we study creation, we see
the power of God. As I look at this and
remember what the scripture says, I am
genuinely surprised to see how many
passages speak of this. According to
Genesis 1, God said, "Let there be
light." And there was light. And God
said, "Let there be a firmament in the
midst of the waters." And it was so. And
God said, "Let the dry land appear." And
it appeared. And God said, "Let the
earth bring forth grass." And the grass
appeared. And he said, "Let us make man
in our image." And he did. In the image
of God created he him. Male and female
created he
them. God spoke and the world came into
being. I know the evolutionists don't
like this truth, but it doesn't matter.
One of these days they'll get it right.
But the Bible says God created the
heavens and the earth.
Argue with it if you want. Believe it or
not, you cannot mess with the truth. The
world is the world that God spoke into
being. Frankly, as hard as it is to
believe that, that makes a whole lot
more sense to me than the modern
explanations that I read about in the
evolutionary documents. His power was
conveyed to build this world by the
simple syllables of his speaking. Psalm
says it this way. By the word of the
Lord, the heavens were made and all the
host of them, by the breath of his
mouth, he spoke and it was done. He
commanded and it stood fast.
I recently came across this picturesque
perspective from the pen of William Law,
an 18th century English
clergyman. He said, "What an immense
workman is God in miniature as well as
in the great. With one hand, he is
making a ring of 100,000 miles in
diameter to revolve around a planet like
Saturn. And with the other hand, he's
forming a tooth in the ray of the
feather of a hummingbird or a point in
the claw of the foot of a microscopic
insect. With one hand, he's doing the
great and with other he's dealing with
the miniature. But in all, he's showing
his power. He is the great almighty God.
And with his creation, he proves his
power. And then there is his
preservation. How many of you know that
this world is held together by the power of
of
God? Isaiah 40:26 says, "Lift up your
eyes on high. See who has created these
things, who brings out their host by
number and calls us all by name. By the
greatness of his might and the strength
of his power, not one is missing.
Almighty God presides over the world and
through his power the world continues to
function according to the way in which
he created it. Jeremiah says when he
thunders the waters in heaven's roar. He
makes clouds rise from the ends of the
earth. He sends lightning and the rain
and brings out the wind from its storehouse.
storehouse.
So ladies and gentlemen, what would
happen if for a single moment almighty
God would withdraw his hand from the
universe? It would fly off into oblivion
and chaos. It would collapse like a
building imploding. The God who created
the universe is the one according to the
New Testament in whom all things
consist. Which means he is the glue that
holds it all together.
God holds the whole world
together by his power. And you know what
that means to you and me? If God can
hold the world together, I think he can
probably hold you
together. Isaiah said, "Even to your old
age, oh, do I love this. Even to your
old age and gray hairs, I am he. I am he
who will sustain you. I have made you
and I will carry you. I will sustain you
and I will rescue you. Isaiah said,
"Even when you're getting old and you
get gray hair, Almighty God is still
holding you together." How do you know
he can do it? He holds the whole world
together. He can handle you and he can handle
handle
me. God's endless energy and his
omnipotent power is something to behold.
And then let me talk just a moment about
the evidence of God's power in the resurrection.
resurrection.
In creation, we see it. In God's
preservation of the world, we see it.
But mostly in the New Testament, we see
it in the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. His incomparably great power for
us who believe. That power is the same
as the mighty strength he exerted when
he raised Christ from the dead and
seated him at his right hand in the
heavenly realms. Fire above all rule and
authority, power and dominion. God by
his exerted power, reversed the process
of death, overturned the process of
decay, caused a silent heart to beat
again, made our Lord's closed eyes to
open, his lifeless corpse to walk again,
and there's so much more. Jesus didn't
simply return to life. He wasn't merely
resuscitated. He was resurrected with a
glorified body, one incapable of aging
or pain or sickness or death. He was
resurrected with eternal power. He came
out of the grave. The resurrection is
one of the great evidences of the power of
of
God. But you know, all of these are great.
great.
Creation, preservation, resurrection.
But you and I live in an age when the
power of God is demonstrated all the
time. And it's the greatest power of
all. I call it the power of transformation.
transformation.
Romans 1:16 says,"For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ." Watch this.
"For it is the power of
God to
salvation." How many of you know it
takes the power of God to get us
saved? Some of you know that more than
others. Maybe you grew up in a Christian
home and you've always been around the
faith and one day you just accepted
Christ because it seemed like the
natural thing to do. But some of you
came out of a life that wasn't anything
close to that and the almighty God
reached down and he grabbed hold of your
life and his power was displayed. One of
my favorite people that I learned to
love after I came to this church back in
the 80s was a man by the name of Henry
Morris. Henry Morris was a creationist.
He was the founder of the Institute of
Creation Research. And when I first came
here, Henry Morris had an office about
two doors down from where mine was in
the administration building. And we got
kind of in routine. We would go to lunch
about once a month. And Henry's written
more books than you can imagine on
creation. He was the ultimate architect
of the creationist movement and a
brilliant man. Not a trained theologian,
but a trained
scientist. I used to tease him because
he interpreted the whole Bible through
creationism. Everything in the Bible was
about creation. I told him one day, I
said, "Henry, if all the other doctrines
in our doctrinal statement had the same
weight as the doctrine of creation, it
would take 10 people to carry the
statement around." Cuz he was totally
committed to creationism. And he even he
even one time described getting saved in
creationist terms. I wrote it down. I
want to share it with you. Here's what
he wrote. A person who is a closed
system spiritually utterly inadequate
and self-centered suddenly becomes an
open system integrated and with his life
centered in the omnipotent creator. He
who was spiritually deteriorating day
after day through the power of the Holy
Spirit. Now the God of hope fills him
with joy and peace. He abounds in hope
through the power of the Holy Spirit and
he becomes quickened together with
Christ. Here's my favorite line. He who
was a chaos is now a
cosmos with order, meaning, and
goal. He is born again, a miracle of
grace, a living testimony to the power
of creation, who was also the God of
salvation. Henry Morris took this
experience of being born again and tried
to describe it in terms that would help
us appreciate the kind of power it takes
for just one
somebody to become a
Christian. Let me give you one case to
consider. Some years ago, there was this
boy named Jimmy. He grew up on an
Indiana farm and he fell into the sorted
world of drugs. He moved to Chicago and
lived in holes beneath the street where
he feasted on an endless supply of
heroin, opium, cocaine, and morphine.
Because he lived under the ground, he
got a nickname. They called him Jimmy the
the
Rat. One day, while lying in a filthy
bunk below the level of the street,
Jimmy the Rat heard someone singing
hymns on the street above. He recalled
the songs he'd sung in church as a boy,
and something stirred in his heart. So
he went to where he heard the music. He
shortly staggered into the Pacific
Garden Mission and he heard more singing
and held up both hands and called out,
"I want somebody to pray for
me." Mission workers gathered around him
and earnestly prayed. And that day he
gave his life to the
Lord and his life was changed
forever. By God's grace, he was able to
overcome his addictions. He returned to
Indiana, became a successful farmer with
a Christian wife and children, often
sharing his testimony of God's saving
grace. And his children were heard to
say in their family prayers, "Thank God
for Pacific Garden Mission, where daddy
learned to know Jesus." And his story is
replicated over and over again every
single day all across the world wherever
the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached.
That to me is the greatest evidence of
the power of God. We try everything else
before we come to God. I'm not here to
criticize any of the attempts to get
people right. Whether it's eight steps
or 10 steps or 12 steps. Please don't
send me letters about what I'm saying
because every time I mention that
somebody thinks I'm critical of them.
I'm not saying that. I'm saying they can
do their thing, but there's a limit to
what they can do. And there is no limit
to what God can do. God can save a
person from the most awful situation you
could imagine. If you're here today and
you think maybe you're beyond God's
reach, let me tell you, there is no one
beyond the reach of God. There is no one
that God cannot save. Every Christian
has a unique testimony. Yours might not
seem as dramatic as Jimmy the Rats, but
it's just as real and just as glorious,
and the change should be just as
lasting. Every Jesus follower is a
exhibit A to the world that God Almighty
has transforming power. The gospel is
the gospel of God's power.
So, we're almost finished, but I don't
want to leave this message without
giving you a couple of takeaways for
your own life. First of all, in the
experience of God's power, the power of
God should energize our worship of God.
One of the things that's amazing to me
as I study these various attributes of
God is all of them have a connection to
worship. The whole issue, men and women,
is this. The more you know about God,
the more you love God. And the more you
love God, the more you want to worship
God. If you don't know very much of God,
you won't love God like you should. And
if you don't love God like you should,
you won't worship him. But when you know
who God is, and you know that this God
who fires the sun is the same God who
loves you enough to take your sin away
and give you hope for eternity. Somehow
you just have to worship. Now I'm going
to read a verse of scripture to you and
it won't seem like it fits until I tell
you what it is. But listen carefully.
Who is like you, oh Lord, among the
gods? Who is like you? Glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing
wonders. Do you know what that is?
That's Exodus 15:11. And it's the first
hymn recorded in all of the Bible.
The first hymn in all of the Bible. Who
is like you, oh Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you? Glorious in your
holiness, fearful in praises, doing
wonders. In other words, whenever we try
to comprehend the power of God, we are
so overwhelmed we cannot understand it.
We can only worship God. Even when we
compare his power to illustrations like
the sun, as I did at the beginning of
this message, our imaginations get lost
in the immensity of the subject. We can
experience the same exuberance today as
Moses did when he wrote this first hymn.
Whenever we sing our songs like all hail
the power, oh Lord my God, when I
awesome wonder. When we sing these songs
of worship, we are reminding ourselves
of the greatness of almighty God, the omnipotent God of the universe, the
omnipotent God of the universe, the creator of heaven and earth, the
creator of heaven and earth, the sustainer of heaven and earth, the
sustainer of heaven and earth, the source of the resurrection, and the
source of the resurrection, and the reason why you and I are on our way to
reason why you and I are on our way to heaven.
heaven. Hallelujah. I've noticed that many of
Hallelujah. I've noticed that many of our contemporary hymns, you may not like
our contemporary hymns, you may not like the cadence, but listen to the words.
the cadence, but listen to the words. Many of our contemporary writers are
Many of our contemporary writers are focusing on God's astounding power. A
focusing on God's astounding power. A new generation is rising to praise him
new generation is rising to praise him because of his power and his grace. When
because of his power and his grace. When you think about the power of God, it
you think about the power of God, it ought to make you worship. And if you're
ought to make you worship. And if you're having a little trouble tonight before
having a little trouble tonight before you go to bed, just walk out and look up
you go to bed, just walk out and look up and remember the God who flung those
and remember the God who flung those stars into space is the God you worship.
stars into space is the God you worship. He's the God you know. He's the God
He's the God you know. He's the God you're learning to love and the God who
you're learning to love and the God who receives your praise when you lift up
receives your praise when you lift up your voice to him. The power of God
your voice to him. The power of God should energize our worship. And
should energize our worship. And secondly, the power of God should
secondly, the power of God should encourage our
encourage our walk. Now, may the God of hope fill you
walk. Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that
with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of
you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the
the Holy Spirit, the third member of the triune God. Notice that word again. It's
triune God. Notice that word again. It's the word power. God's power. God's power
the word power. God's power. God's power is conveyed to us by the Holy Spirit.
is conveyed to us by the Holy Spirit. And listen to me. The same power that
And listen to me. The same power that raised Jesus from the grave is the same
raised Jesus from the grave is the same power available to you to live your life
power available to you to live your life every day in this crooked world where we
every day in this crooked world where we happen to be. The same power that
happen to be. The same power that brought him back from the grave is the
brought him back from the grave is the same power that you have available to
same power that you have available to you.
you. And then the power of God not only
And then the power of God not only should energize our worship and
should energize our worship and encourage our walk. The power of God
encourage our walk. The power of God should empower our work. Sometimes we
should empower our work. Sometimes we feel like we don't have the energy to do
feel like we don't have the energy to do it. Sometimes we get up and think, "Oh,
it. Sometimes we get up and think, "Oh, I got to go do this. I'm on the team. I
I got to go do this. I'm on the team. I I do this." Well, listen to this. God is
I do this." Well, listen to this. God is the one who we proclaim, admonishing and
the one who we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so
teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully
that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end, I
mature in Christ. To this end, I strenuously contend, now watch this,
strenuously contend, now watch this, with all the energy Christ so powerfully
with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in
works in me. Here's what I know. It's not what I
me. Here's what I know. It's not what I always practice. It's what I know. You
always practice. It's what I know. You cannot do the work of God in your own
cannot do the work of God in your own power. If you try, you will get only
power. If you try, you will get only what you can do, but you will never
what you can do, but you will never discover what God can
discover what God can do. When we get involved in serving the
do. When we get involved in serving the Lord if we're not careful, we get into
Lord if we're not careful, we get into our own persona. We start working hard,
our own persona. We start working hard, adding more hours, and trying our very
adding more hours, and trying our very best to make it happen. And all of that
best to make it happen. And all of that is a part of being in ministry. But men
is a part of being in ministry. But men and women, God never intended you and I
and women, God never intended you and I to take on the burden of God's work in
to take on the burden of God's work in our own power while he allows the power
our own power while he allows the power of Almighty God we've been talking about
of Almighty God we've been talking about here today to be unaccessed by us during
here today to be unaccessed by us during the process. We have to stop sometimes
the process. We have to stop sometimes and back up and say, "Lord God, this is
and back up and say, "Lord God, this is too big for me. This is too much for me.
too big for me. This is too much for me. If you don't fill me with your power,
If you don't fill me with your power, this can't happen. Not only can it not
this can't happen. Not only can it not be born, it cannot be sustained. And oh,
be born, it cannot be sustained. And oh, I wish I could bring before you the
I wish I could bring before you the illustrations that I know of people who
illustrations that I know of people who keep trying to do the mighty work of God
keep trying to do the mighty work of God without any of God's
without any of God's power. And we see it so often in the
power. And we see it so often in the secular realm in our churches. Instead
secular realm in our churches. Instead of teaching people how to access the
of teaching people how to access the power of God, we send them a positive
power of God, we send them a positive mental attitude seminars. We start
mental attitude seminars. We start holding all of the secular business
holding all of the secular business seminars in our own churches to tell
seminars in our own churches to tell people how to do the work of God in
people how to do the work of God in their own strength when it was never
their own strength when it was never meant to be done that way in the first
meant to be done that way in the first place. And so we struggle and we fail
place. And so we struggle and we fail and we fall in our faith. Are those
and we fall in our faith. Are those principles good? Yes. Can we learn from
principles good? Yes. Can we learn from them? Yes. But they cannot be the source
them? Yes. But they cannot be the source of our strength and our power. Only our
of our strength and our power. Only our strength and power from God can enable
strength and power from God can enable us and empower us to do the work of God.
us and empower us to do the work of God. Most Christians operate in the energy of
Most Christians operate in the energy of the flesh about 80% of the time
the flesh about 80% of the time according to what people have discussed.
according to what people have discussed. Sometimes I do that, but I'm always
Sometimes I do that, but I'm always sorry when I
sorry when I do. You know, sometimes in the Christian
do. You know, sometimes in the Christian life, you have a power outage. You know
life, you have a power outage. You know what that is? Well, it's going to the
what that is? Well, it's going to the doctor and finding there's something
doctor and finding there's something wrong. It's going into your office at
wrong. It's going into your office at work and being laid off. It's getting a
work and being laid off. It's getting a phone call that your child is in
phone call that your child is in trouble. It's hearing the news that a
trouble. It's hearing the news that a loved one is at death's door. It's a
loved one is at death's door. It's a plunge in the stock market just when
plunge in the stock market just when you're about ready to retire. These
you're about ready to retire. These things happen to you. They happen to me
things happen to you. They happen to me and they have for many years to many
and they have for many years to many people. That's just when we learn to
people. That's just when we learn to switch power sources and begin drawing
switch power sources and begin drawing from the transformer of God's power
from the transformer of God's power because we find out we don't have the
because we find out we don't have the strength to make it. Why do you think
strength to make it. Why do you think people say when they're going through
people say when they're going through tough times, "Dr. Jeremiah, I felt like
tough times, "Dr. Jeremiah, I felt like God was closer to me than he's ever been
God was closer to me than he's ever been my whole life." because you switched off
my whole life." because you switched off your power and you switched on God's and
your power and you switched on God's and you found out his power is
you found out his power is sufficient. Sometimes I give you
sufficient. Sometimes I give you illustrations from people I've read
illustrations from people I've read about that you've never heard about and
about that you've never heard about and I always feel funny when I do that. But
I always feel funny when I do that. But some of these old preachers and teachers
some of these old preachers and teachers that I've been reading about my whole
that I've been reading about my whole life bring so much to the table. There's
life bring so much to the table. There's a guy associated with the Missionary
a guy associated with the Missionary Alliance Church, one of their great
Alliance Church, one of their great heroes. His name is AB
heroes. His name is AB Simpson. He founded a missionary
Simpson. He founded a missionary agency. He's written many books and I
agency. He's written many books and I have read many of them. But until
have read many of them. But until recently, I didn't know that he had a
recently, I didn't know that he had a power
power outage. He said he was 36 years old. He
outage. He said he was 36 years old. He was so sick he could almost see himself
was so sick he could almost see himself falling into the grave. His ministry
falling into the grave. His ministry lost its steam. He endured a period of
lost its steam. He endured a period of deep discouragement while lingering and
deep discouragement while lingering and praying in a camp meeting in the woods.
praying in a camp meeting in the woods. He heard the words of an old
He heard the words of an old African-American spiritual that went
African-American spiritual that went like this. Nothing is too hard for
like this. Nothing is too hard for Jesus. No man can work like
Jesus. No man can work like him. It was this an arrow from God
him. It was this an arrow from God pierced his heart and he realized he'd
pierced his heart and he realized he'd been trying to do God's work in the
been trying to do God's work in the strength of his own passion. Simpson
strength of his own passion. Simpson began contemplating the superlative
began contemplating the superlative power of God. He began thinking about
power of God. He began thinking about the things we've been talking about
the things we've been talking about today. He realized he needed to let the
today. He realized he needed to let the Lord use him as a channel and not be the
Lord use him as a channel and not be the source. And it changed his life and his
source. And it changed his life and his ministry. The power of God as evidenced
ministry. The power of God as evidenced in creation, preservation, the
in creation, preservation, the resurrection, and the transformation of
resurrection, and the transformation of believers is hard for us to grasp, but
believers is hard for us to grasp, but it's wonderful for us when we finally
it's wonderful for us when we finally get a hold of it. That same power is
get a hold of it. That same power is available to carry us through our daily
available to carry us through our daily lives. And God is waiting to exercise
lives. And God is waiting to exercise his power in your behalf. If you're here
his power in your behalf. If you're here today and you don't know Jesus Christ
today and you don't know Jesus Christ and maybe you think your life is out of
and maybe you think your life is out of control and there's nothing that can
control and there's nothing that can change it, I'm here to tell you if you
change it, I'm here to tell you if you haven't tried Jesus, you're
haven't tried Jesus, you're shortcircuiting your whole life. Until
shortcircuiting your whole life. Until you try Jesus, you haven't tried the
you try Jesus, you haven't tried the ultimate answer. Jesus is the ultimate
ultimate answer. Jesus is the ultimate answer to whatever it is that's
answer to whatever it is that's happening in your life. If you do not
happening in your life. If you do not know Jesus Christ, tap into the power
know Jesus Christ, tap into the power that's waiting for you to change your
that's waiting for you to change your life and make you a new person. If
life and make you a new person. If you're a Christian and you're going
you're a Christian and you're going through a tough time and you wonder, is
through a tough time and you wonder, is there any hope? Let me tell you, there
there any hope? Let me tell you, there is hope. Nothing is too hard for our
is hope. Nothing is too hard for our God. Nothing is too hard. He never
God. Nothing is too hard. He never sleeps. He's not ever weary.
sleeps. He's not ever weary. Whatever it is you need, he is able to
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