Not Might or Power, but Spirit
Notes
Transcript
6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
Zechariah was a young man when he wrote this book, meaning he would have been born in Babylon and come to Judah with Zerubbabel in 537. Because of the 8 visions given to him, he was a prophet, and his grandfather was a priest, making Zechariah both a prophet and a priest. His ministry began about 2 months after Haggai began his ministry and a little over a month after the Jews resumed working to rebuild the temple. Zerubbabel had heard from God, he was to rebuild the temple. It is one thing to build from new the first time but to rebuild is almost nearly impossible. It takes more time, is restricted by the existing structure, and is often more costly to rebuild. One of the hardest spiritual experience you will have in your life will not be a new experience but it will be “revival” experiences. Refreshing and rebuilding and rekindling the fires.
Zechariah’s ministry experienced difficulties. He experienced oppositions, just as Nehemiah had. But instead of allowing these things to hamper his ministry, he allowed God to transform his ministry into one of encouragement, motivating the people by predicting future glory for the temple and future greatness for Israel. He spokes of the future of Jerusalem and the coming of the Messiah.
In Chapter 4 verse 6, we see a picture of a reminder to
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
Too often in life, we want to try to handle everything ourselves. It doesn’t matter if it is work, school, marriage, kids, finances, or just the stresses of life - we act like we’ve got it! We can handle it. We can make do. We will survive. We can, we can, we can… until we can’t. Then we fall to pieces. Unfortunately we view prayer and the reliance on the Holy Spirit as a last resort effort. Lord, I’ll handle this until I exhaust all my resources and THEN I will turn to you. Instead of reminding ourselves of Proverbs 3:5 - to not lean on our own understanding…that is exactly what we do. Why do we blatantly disregard God’s teachings knowing it is not in our best interest? Simply because Satan will try his best to distract us, to discourage us, and to destroy us.
Zerubbabel was caught in the trap of discouragement. Things were not going as he had expected. Things were not moving as fast. As a matter of fact they had come to a stand still. People had left the work of the temple and began to work on their own houses. They had even gotten comfortable with the fact the temple of the Lord was not being built.
There were some that were saying, “Put it off to the next generation”. But let me tell you there won’t be much of the next generation if this generation sits on their faith for God. So God speaks to Zerubbabel through the prophet Zechariah. He says tell Zerubbabel that this temple will be built by him but it will not be, “by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts. This is what the Lord wants to do in your life. He wants to prove himself to you.
Some of you here today are dealing with circumstances in your life that is almost out of control. You see no hope and the only light at the end of the tunnel is a train. You are discouraged and don’t know which way to turn.
To be honest you have tried all you can try and done all you can do now it is time to give it to the Lord. God says to you, “It is not by your might, nor by your power but by His Spirit says the Lord of Hosts”.
Secondly, some of you have made this decision to give it to the Lord. In your mind you keep telling the Lord, “It is out of my hands, it is out of my control.” Yet the Lord says, “You have got to pull your hand out of it.” We talk about, “God is in control”. I will let God be God yet we keep putting our hand in it and to be honest, “Mess everything up”. God says you have got to remove your hand and any resemblance of work you did. Let him be God that is what he is good at.
Finally some of you just need God to prove himself to you. There is nothing wrong with this as long as you are searching and open to the Lord. Zechariah’s first message was for repentance among God’s people. To look back and remember what events had caused God to allow them to be taken into captivity. To remember the pleading of prophets to turn from their sinful ways and return to the Lord. God gives Israel a promise, the same that He gives to us today.
3 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
What was the main reason the Israelites were having so much trouble? They had turned from God, and God left them alone. This returned remnant had not put God first, so He could not bless them in the way He wanted to. And we wonder why we, as a country, don’t seem to be blessed by God any more?
8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
We must re-evaluate our closeness to God. We must draw closer to Him. We have to get our hearts right with God so we can hear His Word. We must repent, even those of us who are saved, and return back to God. We must remember, it is not by our might, not by our power, but by the Holy Spirit that true change occurs.
Might
Might
Might - great power or strength. The basic meaning of the root is “to rise, raise, restore,” with the idea of being strong, or prevailing over coming only in the derived stems.
If we think back to the story of Samson, God gave tremendous physical strength to him IF he would follow God’s commands. While still in the womb God instructed Samson’s mom that he was to deliver Israel and that he was to be a Nazarite from birth to death. A Nazarite was someone who took a vow from Numbers 6 to abstain from three primary things, anything from grapes (including all alcohol), cutting any hair, or touching a dead body.
Most people that took a Nazarite vow would do so for only a period of time. But from birth, Samson was told he had to follow this his whole life. He was to be different, set apart. You’ve probably been taught that Samson’s power came from his hair. With is true in one sense. But ultimately what the Bible makes clear is that Samson’s power came from God. It was God that had set the stage and it was God that was motivating Samson to action.
The problem was, Samson had other things to come into his life that pulled him away from God. He takes a walk through a vineyard - not staying away from grapes. A lion attacks, and God gives Sampson the strength to kill it. He goes back to look at his handiwork and finds honeycomb in the lions carcass. He again fails to keep God’s commands and takes and eats honey from the dead carcass. But the most astonishing thing he did was to be tricked by a Philistine prostitute into telling of the source of his strength. His hair is cut, his eyes are plucked out, Sampson finds himself powerless and under Philistine bondage.
God had patiently been waiting for him to repent. But when he breaks the last rule God isn’t there to bail him out. Samson has to suffer the consequences. Why? Because God wants him to feel the weight of what he has done so that maybe, just maybe Samson will repent and come back.
Instead, Samson does what God had told his momma - he would deliver the nation out of Philistine bondage. But it would cost him his life as a result of his disobedience.
How often have we heard God’s commands for our lives only to let our own personal desires get in the way of what God wants for our lives? We are leaning on our own might, our own desires, our own wants…only to find ourselves outside the will of God. We do not have the strength to keep ourselves out of trouble. It is only through the strength given by the Holy Spirit that we can remain in God’s will.
9 “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness, for not by might shall a man prevail.
Power
Power
Power refers to the strength of the individual. It’s what we have control over. There are three ways we can attempt to do God’s work; we trust our own strength and wisdom, we rely on the resources of the world; or we can depend on the power of God. The first two, we may even define as “success”, but many fail in the end. Only work done through the power of the Holy Spirit glorifies God.
12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—
13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.
15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Many times, the obstacles of life seems to overwhelm us. We look at what we think are limited resources and think “there is no way”. We may even give up on promises God has made to us, simply because we don’t see any good way to get it done. We may have been praying for weeks, months, years, and it seems God doesn’t hear or answer those prayers. But God reminds us:
21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.
Zerubbabel was facing disagreeable people, opposition from the surrounding enemies, failing crops, unstable economy, people not obeying God’s Law, and the only answer to these difficulties he was facing was to pray for the Holy Spirit’s power. When early Christians faced problems, they turned to God in prayer, and God answered by giving them a filling of the Holy Spirit.
23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,
25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “ ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,
30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Now, that was a Holy Ghost revival! I often wonder, are we afraid to pray and ask God to take over our lives because we are afraid He might pour out a Holy Ghost revival in our lives? But that is where we derive our true strength!
Spirit
Spirit
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
The Spirit of God is what would give Zerubbabel the strength for life and service. God emphasized to him that it would not be his own strength or power that would complete the temple, but the Spirit of God working through Zerubbabel. The people had grown discouraged. The people thought they were in a unwinnable situation. The people had given up. But God reached down and encouraged Zerubbabel. The Lord is a God of encouragement and of strength. He strengthens His people for His work and for life. His Word promises wisdom, strength, and everything we need to accomplish His work on earth and we know His Word never fails.
Closing
Closing
The people of God looking at the pile of rubble that used to be their glorious temple and that looks impossible to deal with, but now I want you to think about your life. Is there something there that is similar, or that feels similar? Something that looks like a huge mess? A big pile of rubble, overwhelming, insurmountable, out of your control? Maybe it is even something you try not to think about, because it just makes you anxious. Well think about it now.
Those two words, “might” and “power” are used on purpose, and when put together like they are here they basically mean everything and anything that people could do. “Might” is a military word, “power” a more general word for all human resources.
Back to our lives – that pile of rubble, that mess, which you feel powerless against – that is okay. Because it is “Not by might nor by power”, not by anything that you and I can do, “but by my Spirit says the LORD.” You and I can’t do it, but God can. We can’t physically heal, we can’t change the heart of a loved one far from God, we can’t heal the grief, we can’t fight our way through a financial mess on our own, we can’t force our teens to make good choices, we can’t see all the possible outcomes of the various choices ahead of us and thus make the perfect decision, we can’t find peace with incredibly hard things that are beyond our control. Now here is the good news – we don’t have to! “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD (of heaven’s armies).” We can’t do it, but God can. Only the Spirit of God can handle those messes in our lives. Will you let Him? Will you trust Him? Will you give Him control, and have faith that what God has promised will be done?
Now I imagine some of you feeling deflated. Going back to the feeling helpless in the face of the massive mess. Probably thinking “well I tried that already, and it didn’t make a difference. Nothing happened, the mess is still there…”.
Without knowing the specifics of your struggle, I can still affirm the promise. It is freedom and life. Freedom from the weight of the burden. Freedom from the sin that keeps us flat on the ground with our faces in the muck. Freedom from the feeling that we have to be in charge of it all. Freedom from the pain that keeps us stuck. Freedom from the stress of trying to be in control.
To get there, we have to first believe that it is “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD.” Then we have to dig in, pull away boulder by boulder. Start small, that’s okay. Maybe you write a note to apologize, and a few rocks are moved. Maybe you make an appointment with a counselor to start some healing; another shovel. Maybe you just start to pray about the mess again, and you make a small beginning. Start small, get to work on it, all the while knowing and believing that God can, and God will, keep His promise and deliver us to freedom and to life.