God asked Jeremiah, the prophet, "Is anything too difficult
for me?" (Jeremiah 32:26) What a question! Is anything too
difficult for me? Let me tell you the context of that
question. Babylon is about to conquer Judah, the southern
kingdom. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, has been
prophesying about that for a long time. Babylon is right at
the door. Jeremiah said, "They built the siege ramps and
they're putting them up against the wall of Jerusalem." God
requested a most unusual thing of Jeremiah. He said,
"Jeremiah, what I want you to do is go buy a field." Now
folks, when an invading force is about to conquer your
land, real estate investment is not a real good idea.
Jeremiah said, "Lord, the siege ramps are right there, you
don't understand." He said, "You don't understand, this is
a symbol. I want witnesses to see the transaction so that
they will know that this land is still yours. Though I am
going to use Babylon to conquer Judah, I'm going to bring
you back home. Then God asked the question: "Is there
anything too difficult for me?"
Scripture is filled with instances of "Is anything too hard
for the Lord?" God came to Abraham and Sarah after they
waited a quarter of a century for a child. (Genesis 18:14)
Job said, "I know that you can do all things." (Job 42:2)
The prophet Isaiah said "The Lord is the everlasting Lord,
the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow
tired or weary." (Isaiah 40:28) Our Lord Jesus said "What
is impossible with men is possible with God." (Luke 18:27)
That's our God. He's all powerful, he's Almighty and he has
unlimited power. He never gets tired or frustrated.
Everything he does, he does effortlessly, whether it's
creating a universe or answering a prayer.
Examine his power based upon those promises.
1. His power in Creation.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies
declare the work of his hands. Day after day they pour
forth speech; night after night they display
knowledge." (Psalm 19:1-2) Every one of us has stood
and gazed over a mountain range or looked out over the
ocean. Perhaps you've flown on an airplane and stared
at the horizon and marveled at God's awesome power and
design. Every moment creation is a witness of the
reality that our God is all powerful.
I read not long ago that each second, our sun emits
more energy and raw power than has been used on the
face of the earth throughout history-each second.
Scientists say that if nothing were to happen to
interrupt it our sun will burn for thirty billion more
years. Our sun is one of one hundred billion stars in
the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of one trillion
galaxies. Our God spoke those things into existence. He
just said, "Let there be light and there was light. He
said, "Stars," and stars were everywhere. That's what I
call power. Surely, David knew exactly what he was
talking about when he said, "Only a fool says in his
heart there is no God." (Psalms 14:1)
2. His power found in the miracles
But it's not just Creation that proclaims it. The
tremendous power found in the miracles in Scripture
proclaims His mighty power. The parting of the Red Sea,
the fall of the wall of Jericho, the day the sun stood
still, the dead raised to life and then the miracles
culminated in the life of Jesus. Jesus is the supreme
example of God's great power. Nobody ever did and
nobody ever claimed to do all that our Lord did. He
demonstrated power over nature. He walked on water, he
calmed the storms and he spoke to a tree and it
withered. He had power over illness, healing the blind,
the lame, the deaf and the lepers. Jesus raised the
dead on three occasions. He broke the shackles of the
grave himself. Jesus even demonstrated power over Satan
and all of his evil forces. On one occasion, he
commanded a whole legion of demons to come out of a man
and go into a bunch of pigs. That's just the hem of the
garment. But we've touched enough for jaws to drop,
knees to shake and voices to tremble. God's power is
awesome.
3. God wants to share his power with you.
The truly amazing thing is that God wants to share his
power with you. "And his incomparably great power for
us who believe. That power is like the working of his
mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he
raised him from the dead and seated him at his right
hand in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 1:19-20) Now I
hope you understood what was being said. That's
incredible. God wants to share his limitless power with
you, the same power that fuels the sun, the same power
that spoke the ocean into existence, the same mighty
power that raised Christ from the dead. He wants to
channel that power through you and through me.
There are people everywhere who go through life,
powerless. They just walk along as victims. They see
themselves as victims of their circumstances, victims
of society, victims of other people and victims of
unfair treatment. They go through life weak, miserable
and getting by. God says, "I want to give you power. I
want to give you power to do some incredible things."
What incredible things?
a. The power to conquer sin in your life
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ
Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free
from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:1-2)
"Those who walk by the sinful nature they do the
things of the sinful nature, but those who walk by
the Spirit, they don't do the things of the sinful
nature, they find themselves walking by the
Spirit's life." (v. 5)
Is anybody here a slave to sin? Do you keep falling
to the same temptation over and over and over
again? Every time you say "I'm sorry, I'm never
going to do that again," and lo and behold, you do
it again, and again, and again. If the truth be
told, that sin is your master. But do you know that
God didn't design it to work that way, and that he
will give you the power to break that cycle? He
will.
b. Power for peace in your life. "The mind
of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by
the Spirit is life and peace." (Romans 8:6) Maybe
you can't readily think of one sin that is
controlling you, you're just sitting there saying,
"I'm just kind of blah, I don't know what life is
all about. I don't have a peace of my existence. I
don't understand." God is giving you the power to
have that peace.
c. Empower your prayer life through his
Spirit living in you. "In the same way, the Spirit
helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we
ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groans that words cannot
express." (Romans 8:26)
d. Power to overcome circumstances. "And we
know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according
to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) God wants to empower
you to live above your circumstances.
Have you ever asked anybody, "How are you doing?"
They say, "I guess I'm doing all right under the
circumstances." I always want to ask them, "Well,
what are you doing under your circumstances? You've
got no business being under them. Get on top of
them. God doesn't want you under the circumstances.
He doesn't want you going through life as a victim.
He will give you the power to climb out from under
those things that would devastate you and show you
something positive you could never have seen or
known otherwise." That's the promise of Romans
8:28.
e. Empower you to be more Christ-like. "For
those God foreknew he also predestined to be
conformed to the likeness of his Son." (Romans
8:29) That is what God wants for you more than
anything else. He wants you to be free from sin, to
know peace and to have a great prayer life. He
wants you on top of your circumstances, but more
than anything else, our God wants you to be like
Jesus Christ.
Let me summarize the way God would channel power
through your life. He wants to enable you to live
the richest, fullest, happiest and most productive
life possible. No doubt some of you are thinking,
"That works for you but it doesn't work for me. 0,
I'm a Christian, I've obeyed the gospel and I'm
going to go to heaven, I guess. But I've never felt
God's power in my life. I hear those things
preached, but I don't know if it really works."
That thinking leads to the fourth and most
important.
You better believe it does. Let's look at the process of
applying his power. Most Christians don't think God's power
is in their lives to any significant degree. I base that
upon observation. I don't think most Christians sense God's
power to any significant degree. It's not automatic. There
are some things you must do to key into it. Unless you
follow God's counsel for receiving his power, you'll live
your life just as powerless and just as defeated as an
unbeliever.
So how do I apply His power on a consistent basis?
a. I admit to a lack of power in my life. Most
of us think we're omnipotent. We think we're God. We
don't say it out loud, but deep in our hearts we think:
Is there anything too difficult for me? I can do
anything and everything. If you don't believe that,
look at your schedule, you are trying to do absolutely
anything and everything. You think it's all up to you.
Somebody says, "If you burn the candle at both ends,
you're not as bright as you think you are." A lot of us
need to learn that. Sooner or later stress, tension and
frustration mounts. Then, BOOM!
There's a lot of talk today about a mid-life crisis. A
mid-life crisis really is simply waking up to your
limitations. It's realizing that you're not God. It's
realizing that you can't control everything, you're not
going to reach every goal, you are a human being,
you're weak and you're getting older. Your body is
settling, and your hairline is receding.
What do you do when you realize that you're weak?
Listen to God! Paul said, "But He said to me, 'My grace
is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in
weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on
me." (2 Corinthians 12:9) If you will not admit your
weakness, forget the power of God. As long as you
pretend to be self-sufficient you short-circuit God's
power in your life. As long as you feel I've got life
by the tail, then God will step back and say, "Okay,
take it. Let's see what it does to you."
b. Believe in faith. This is the key-write it
down and inscribe it on your heart. The key to God
channeling power in our lives is faith. Jesus taught,
"Everything is possible to him who believes" (Mark
9:23) and '"According to your faith it will be done to
you.'" (Matthew 9:29)
If that's true, and it is, then two critical questions
naturally follow: 1) what are you expecting God to do
in your life? and 2) what are you expecting God to do
through your life? Because he works according to faith,
God has unlimited power. Let's don't limit him by our
expectation of him. Many times, we've talked about
this, but remember God is the ultimate power source and
faith is our connector. Faith is our conduit, and the
amount of power that God channels into our lives
directly correlates to the amount of faith that we are
using to connect. The other day my battery died, or
something died, the car wouldn't start. I fellow pull
over and said, "I've got some jumper cables." They were
these little old bitty things just made out of tinfoil.
He hooked them up to his battery and mine and it still
wouldn't crank. I thought, we can't solve it at all.
Then this other fellow came up. He had a pick-up truck.
He had everything in there. He took out jumper cables
that took two of us to carry. They were big cables, he
said, "Let me hook them up for you, son." I said,
"Okay." Sure enough, he hooked them up and VAROOOOM!
What was the difference? The difference was neither in
the recipient and the power source, it was in the
connection. It was in the strength of that
connection.
A lot of us have faith that is like a little electrical
cord for a 110-outlet and God wants us to have cable so
that we can really know the power. Vince Hefner once
said, "God has given us an atomic bomb power and yet we
live firecracker lives." There is not a problem too big
for God. There is no request he cannot handle. Then the
issue is my faith. What am I willing to believe? If you
want to see God's power in your life, you must first
believe in faith.
c. Speak in faith. I find most preachers leave
this out. Paul says, "It is written: (and he quotes
Psalm 116) 'I believed; therefore I have spoken.' With
that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore
speak." (2 Corinthians 4:13) Paul says, "After you
believe, you also need to speak." You must verbalize
your faith. There must be an announcement of what
you're intending to see God do. You don't just think
it; you announce it and speak it. Folks, that's what a
goal is. A goal is a statement of faith. Now if you
don't believe in God or if you're not following the
prescription, then your goal is only a statement of
faith in your own power. But a well-crafted goal can
and should be a statement of faith in God's power. I
believe God can and will bless my life this way.
Well-constructed goals are statements of faith. The
size of your goals is determined by the size of your
God. You show me the goals in your life and I'll show
you what you really think in the power of God. How many
of you have a goal "I believe God will use me to bless
hundreds of people." He can. The question is: Do you
believe that and will you state that? If you've got a
family that's fractured right now, do you believe that
God can use you to be the spark of light and blessing
in your family? He can. Do you believe that? Would you
say it? Folks, it's very important that you announce
your faith. James says, "The tongue is the rudder of
your life. It sets the direction, it charts the
course." It has the power of life and it has the power
of death.
What are you saying about your marriage? What are you
saying about your job? What are you saying about your
finances? What are you saying about your children? What
are you saying about your church? Many of you are
sitting around waiting for God to do something in your
lives, but you're short-circuiting it all by the way
you talk. You say you believe it but then deny it by
your complaints. How many times have I heard somebody
say, "Well, I'm praying God will save my marriage, but
it's the pits?" They say, "I'm praying my kids will
make the right choices, oh, but sometimes I think
they're hopeless." Or, "I believe that God has the
power to allow me to break those bad habits, but that's
just the way I am." Don't short-circuit God's power by
your thoughts and utterances. God's power is not
automatic. You must first admit you need His power,
believe in faith that He can supply your need, and
speak and act in faith.
d. Act in faith. This point is vital and most
people miss it. If you want God's power in your life,
you step out in advance before the power is released.
See, God wants you to take an action for him before you
ever feel anything. Did you catch that? Somebody says,
"Are you saying that I've got to act as if I have the
power, even though I don't yet have the power, in order
to get the power?" Yes. That's acting in faith. You go
ahead and act in faith before you feel it and God
rewards it. You don't wait for a feeling.
Some of you right now are waiting for a feeling. You're
waiting for God to move you. "I'm waiting for a feeling
in order to get involved in a ministry." "I'm waiting
for that one sermon to suddenly just move me and I'll
plug right in." Some are saying "I'm waiting for God to
move me to give generously." "I'm waiting for God to
move me to share my faith at work." "I'm waiting for
God to give me the feeling to get my marriage in
order." If the only time that you do things is when you
feel like it, rest assured, the devil will make sure
you never feel like it. He has tremendous influence
over our emotions. You've got to act in faith. Take the
step before you feel like it, whether you ever feel
like it or not. Immaturity is living by your feelings,
and maturity is living by faith, your commitments. So
act now.
Many people miss God's blessing because they've never
tried. If you don't try, you don't receive the
power.
Do you remember when Peter had fished all night without
catching anything? Jesus said, "Peter, I want you to go
out, launch out into the deep, (and remember those
great words) and cast your nets." (Luke 5:6) Peter said
"Lord, we've fished all night. They're not biting." He
said, "I didn't ask if they were biting, I didn't ask
if you felt like going, I said launch out into the
deep." What did Peter do? He launched out into the deep
and the nets began to break and the boats began to
sink. You act in faith.
The children of Israel were finally going to cross the
Jordan River into the Promised Land under Joshua. They
put the Ark of the Covenant on the shoulders of the
priests carrying it by the poles and Joshua said,
"Walk, walk right into the water and as you walk into
the water don't worry, it's going to subside." I've
often wondered what they thought as they got close to
the edge and they felt the water hit their toes, then
their ankles and maybe mid-calf. Were they wondering,
"What are we doing here?" But all of a sudden the water
just backed up and they walked across on dry
ground.
Peter in Matthew 14 saw the Lord walking on the water.
He stepped out and he acted in faith receiving the
power to walk on that water. Many of you are waiting
thinking you are waiting on God. But, God is waiting on
you. The power is there to heal whatever is really
injurious in your life. He just wants you to admit you
need it, believe in faith, speak in faith, then step
out and act in faith. "Is anything too difficult for
me?" No, nothing is too difficult for God.
Lesson #1272 July 14,
1996
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