God's Power and our Ability

Introduction

Personal Introduction

Faith promise cards

Dismiss Children

Looking forward to starting our new series “The Tensions of Thanksgiving”

How many of you have family ovr go to a families home for thankngiving?

I remember growing up and going to different families homes on thanknsgiving haviign more food than any of us would ever need.

Have you ever experienced that tension between going to be with family for thanksgiving and maintaining your sanity?

You know…your grateful for the opportunity but not sure if you want to deal with some of the crazy that come with it. SPeople with strainend relationships forced to be in the same room together and passive aggressive comments made from time to time. We love the opportunity to be with family but sometimes we face a tension as to whether the thing we are giving thanks for is actually worth taking part in. Do we believe it’s actually as good as we think it is.

We give thanks to God for so many things that He does but the Bible teaches us that we are to thank God for who He is as well.

We have all done this I’m sure “Thank you for being good, loving, merciful, just, powerful, etc.”

We give Him thanks for so much, yet there is a tension we have in our hearts between what we thank Him for and what we beleive He will be when it comes to us. I think this has to do with expectations.

What do you expect from God? We should expect God to be nothing more and nothing less than who He says He is.

He is good, he is love, he is mercifuly, he is jealous, he is all powerful, he is all knowing, and he is alway present.

While that seems pretty straightforward, I’m afraid we find ourselves imposing our own ideals of how He should work out His Character.

For instance, if I told you I was all powerful and could do 1 thing…some of you may say heal all sickness, maybe stop all wars, or make it so my team wins the super bowl.

See my trait of omnipotence, didn’t change. Your idea of how I should use it is what is different.

This creates the tension I want to talk to you about to day. I want us to examine God’s power and our ability.

Let’s start with

Luke 3:7–9 KJV 1900

7 Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 9 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

LUke 3:7-9

Exegete: Alright, a little context to this. This is John the Baptist Speaking to a group of people that have come to be baptize by him. John the Baptist is the cousin of Jesus and the one that wa prophesied about to be the voice in the wilderness. He is preparing the way for Jesus and letting people know the Messiah is coming.

As a crowd has gathered around him he says these words to them.

He calls them a generation of vipers. He is addressing the religious elite of the day. As poisinous snakes they had injected their man made law and religiosity into the people directing their attention away from the God of the law and to the law itself.

He calls them and all the people listening to him to produce fruit of repentance.

He wants them to change their thinking about the law and the application of it.

One excuse they would give for living the way they do is that they were childrren of Abraham and had to keep the law this particular way.

John calls them to the carpet on this one. Think of what they heard here. You say your children of Abraham, I’m telling you God can raise up the stones to be children of Abraham.

That’s like me look at you and reminding you…you say your American, you say your Baptists, you say your *insert thing you take pride in here* and me telling you that God can make those types of people out of stones…rocks. I’m telling you, you are no better than rocks. Or as Jonathan Edwards called people, worms.

Here in lies the root of the tension we feel between us and God and with others.

Proverbs 13:10 KJV 1900

10 Only by pride cometh contention: But with the well advised is wisdom.

Prov 13:10

Illustrate:

Quick survey: Anyone else here an only child like me?

Ok, and what about oldest children?

And lastly, youngest child?

O I”m sorry, I didn’t ask about the middle child. That’s ok, no one remembers the middle child anyway. haha

I’m just kidding. I didn’t ask about middle children becuase they don’t typicaly fit the stereotype I’m about to talk about.

It’s interesting to see many only children interact with other kids when they are toddlers. And for some reason the baby of the family does this to. They say this word when playing with toys with other kids. Do you know what that word is?

Mine…Mine…LIke those seagulls from Nemo…Mine mine mine

And when they do that it creates a tension

This is what the Israelites had done. They had claimed their life as their own. They had created their own laws and claimed them as theirs. John is calling them to repent of that and follow after God by faith and not works.

Apply:

It’s the same message I’m giviing you today. Don’t claim something to be yours that is by all rights Gods.

What is it in your life that God has authority or power over? Career path? Time? finances? geographic location? ability to forgive? Talents?

What in your life are you holding onto like the seagulls from Nemo and saying “Mine..mine”?

What’s keeping you from giving it over to the Lord?

I don’t know about you but I want God to work in my life. I want God to bless my life. I want God to use my life to multiply the kingdom of God.

However if there is pride in my heart I can gaurentee…God won’t work. Not that God can’t, God won’t. Why? Because Pride is you resisting God. James wrote “God resits the proud but give graces to the Humble.”

We want God to bless. We want God to bring revival. We want God to move ina a mighty way but we want Him to move in our mighty way.

What we have to understand though is

I. When you give God your life, God gives you life

The Israelites were not giving their lives to God. They were performing acts of religion without a life that reflected love for God.

Their pride kept them from repenting. They’ve been called to repent now and some of them asked some great questions

Luke 3:10–14 KJV 1900

10 And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? 11 He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. 12 Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? 13 And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. 14 And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.

LUke 3:10-14

Exegete:

They asked, what does that look like?

He said if you have two coats, give one away. But what if they are both nice coats? What if grandma made you those coats? What if that other person didn’t work for their coat? What if you might need one of those coats when it gets cold?

What if thats the last two coats you have?

What if thats the last meat you have? What if its the best meat you have?

To the tax collecters he said “take no more than is owed.”

They were not just collecting the taxes from Ceaser they were lining their pockets. They were getting paid to collect the taxes and then collecting more on top of that for themselves..

What did he tell the soldiers? Don’t extort people. Be satisfied with the wages you have.

There is a common theme here.

Take the things you think you need and give them away. Don’t think you need more than you have.

But God, I want more. But God, that’s not what I planned for my life .I planned to have all the meats like arbys and the coats like burlington coat factory.

These things are ....MINE…I can’t give them away. I can’t be satisfied with less than I desire.

Illustrate:

We believe we can’t live without many things…until more important things are taken away.

I read a quote recently that said

“I complained about the shoes I owned until a met a man with no feet.”

We often don’t realize what we have until its gone becuase we have been so focused on what we don’t have.

I heard a story about a

A man became envious of his friends because they had larger and more luxurious homes. So he listed his house with a real estate firm, planning to sell it and to purchase a more impressive home. Shortly afterward, as he was reading the classified section of the newspaper, he saw an ad for a house that seemed just right. He promptly called the realtor and said, "A house described in today's paper is exactly what I'm looking for. I would like to go through it as soon as possible!" The agent asked him several questions about it and then replied, "But sir, that's your house your describing."

You see we claim ownership over these things in this life and put such an importance on them that we have blinded ourselves to the truly important things of life.

We have nneglected the important thingns of God.

Apply:

We are clinging to the things that are “mine” unwilling to have an open hand to give to the Lord, why? Becuase it’s mine. Why should I give it to anyone or anything? Why shouldn’t it just benefit me?

That makes our lives and all of our posession all about ourelves.

Jesus being the best example of living for us came to serve and not be served. He came for you, me, and eveyrone else not for himself. Being the creator God of the universe in the flesh He came to humble serve those that were around Him yet we as His creation flip the script and try to make everything about us.

It’s about what we can amass, we make life about what we can keep.

Jesus wants our lives to be abotut what we can give away.

2 Corinthians 9:7 KJV 1900

7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

2 Cor 9:7

Hebrews says that greed doesn’t come from the Lord, it comes from the world.

II. Greed doesn’t exist because of what you have, Greed exists because of who you are.

It doesn’t matter if you have two pennies or two billion, if you are greedy, you will be greedy.

Greed and discontentment doesn’t come from the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart, it comes from the lust of eyes as youlook upon the world.

You may ask what does this have to do with the tension between God’s power and our ability?

Great quetion. Notice how JOhn finihed this section out

Luke 3:15–17 KJV 1900

15 And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not; 16 John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: 17 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

Luke 3:15-17

Exegete:

He describes Jesus as someone greater than he. Someone powerful. Someone that John shouldn’t even take his shoes off. He is going to baptize them with the Holy Ghost. THe Holy Spirit of God will invdwell them. John can only put them under water, Jesus will put them under conviction.

He is going to come with a fan to clear the threshing floor of the barn and divide the wheat from the tares and the goats from the sheep. He is going to live and speak a truth that will cause division.

You either have faith or you don’t. You eithr believer or you don’t.

You see as bible believing christians we trust what the Bible says about salvation by grace through faith. You either have faith that Jesus is the wy the truth and the life or your don’t

If you do. If you are a person that says “I believe in Jesus as my savior” then let me ask you this,

Do you beleive He is as powerful as he says He is?

How powerful does He say he is?

Matthew 28:18 KJV 1900

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Matthew 28:18

He is All powerful.

Do you belieeve that?

Illustrate:

There are people that believe in God to be all powerful. There arre people that believe witchcraft to be all powerful.

Have you ever seen a spellbook? I have. I’ve read them. I’ve sat with wiccans and witches. I’ve heard of their belief and I’ve shared mine.

If I opened a book of spells right now. Like this one and started reading it. How would you feel? Some of you started fidgeting a bit.

Why? Christians will fidget and get nervous if someone start talking about witches and spells and eencantations. Maybe even if we were talking about Harry Potter, Hocus Pocus, or Halloween.

Why? Do we believe some spell read out of a book will bring a dark cloud into this room and give legal rights to our families or impact our salvation or life for Christ?

Chritians will sit nervous bellieving the power of a spelllbook but every week we come here and hear the word of God preached or open it daily to read it and treat it as though it has no power at all.

Apply:

Do you believe a spell book, movie, or anything else is morre powerful than your God? Then that’s not the God of the Bible.

Do you believe He is all powerful? Do you thank Him for His power?

If you believe in Jesus, and you believe God is all pwoerful then why is it difficult for us to give away a coat? Share the meat? Give away the money? Be contennt with what we are paid?

Is it that we don’t beleive God will take care of us?

Or is it we don’t believe God will take care of us the way we want?

III. The Power of God is for His glory, not ours

We want God’s power to work the way we want. We want God to provide us with what we believe we need rather than what He desires for us.

That’s called pride. The tension between God’s power and ability is pride. Our ability to serve, our ability to give, our ability to love, our abillity to forgive, our ability to bring God glory.

God is all powerful and we are fully capabale of bringing Him glory but the tension that is created between His power and our ability to make that happen resides within the heart of each person in this room and it is defined as pride.

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