Message 3: Empowerment
Key #2: A New Empowerment!
INTRODUCTION:
Dr. John Chacha is an evangelist to the Muslim World – listen to this story he tells:
"I began serving Jesus as a student. Once, I went with some other students to a
predominantly Muslim island to preach. We set up our loudspeakers and told the
people that we were there to tell them about Jesus. The Mullah immediately
began heckling. "We don't believe that Jesus was the Son of God, just a
prophet. Get off our island, or we will kill you. You have a few minutes to
pack up and leave." So we packed up, because none of us wanted to die. But the
Spirit of the Lord told me "Go back. If they cannot accept Jesus as the Son of
God, I have another idea." So we went back, set up the loudspeakers again, and
started to sing. The people came, but with stones in their hands, just waiting
to stone us. I told them "We are not here to tell you about Jesus the Son of
God, but about Jesus, the doctor!" "Jesus the doctor? OK, tell us about him,"
they said. I asked whether they had any sick. "Bring me a sick person. We will
pray for them in the name of Jesus. If they are healed, will you believe that
Jesus is the Son of God, crucified, risen and sitting at the right hand of
God?" "If your Jesus can do that, then he is not only the Son of God, he is God
himself!" they replied. They brought someone, but it was a shock for me. I had
been expecting someone with a headache or back pain, but they brought a blind
woman.
My faith almost vanished. I prayed "God, please let the earth open up and
swallow me." The other students started to vanish in the crowd, because I had
told them to make their escape. In this moment of my weakness, the Holy Spirit
said to me "Son, I am strong enough to defend my own Word. You do not need to
defend me. Your job is just to believe." So I just prayed a very simple prayer:
"God, open these blind eyes, so that these people recognise that Jesus is the
Son of God." The power of God came upon the woman, her eyes opened and she
shouted "I can see! I can see!" I started shouting, too! "The Bible works! The
Word of God is real!" The Mullah came to me, saying "We give you our mosque.
Please tell our people about Jesus, the Son of God!"
Source: Dr. John Chacha, web site www.teamworkministries.com
Today we are going to talk about this kind of POWER. Turn to Matthew 17:14
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4:20 some very important words.
“For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20 NKJV
The nature of God’s Kingdom is not WORD – but POWER. We live in a world that is filled with POWER STRUGGLES – and ultimately all power struggles have a common root: Who will be in charge – God or satan?
Today we speak the issue of…
POWER: The New Christian knows how to operate in the power of God, to do the impossible in order to be a witness for Christ!
I want you to turn to Matthew 17:14ff. We are going to see in this story – how the power of God is to be manifested in our lives and in our ministries.
“When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”” Matthew 17:14-20, NIV.
1. The NEED for power is great. v. 14-15
• A father brings his demon-possessed son to Jesus. It’s killing him. It’s destroying his life. This is the work of the enemy – stealing territory from God. Little boys aren’t supposed to be demon-possessed. That’s not God’s will.
• He brings him to Jesus – anticipating that Jesus has the power to do something about it.
• Has anything changed in our world today?
• Aren’t there people who are suffering in the hands of abuse, perversion, divorce, abandonment?
• Doesn’t pornography, sexual perversion, child molestation and rape seem to increase every year?
• Don’t you know people – in your sphere of influence – who need God’s power to change their lives – to bring them to freedom – to heal their brokenness?
• Is it God’s will that the enemy possesses so much of His territory? No, it isn’t.
The NEED for power is great. It is obvious. It is glaring. POWER is needed in order to change the world.
Now, we read in verse 16 that this father had already brought the boy to the disciples of Jesus – but they weren’t able to help him.
2. Those who SHOULD HAVE the power don’t. v. 16
“I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” v. 16
Imagine the frustration of that father – he brings his boy to the disciples of Jesus – anticipating something good, and gets nothing. Can you feel his sense of despair? His sense of loss – ‘Aren’t you the men who have been with Jesus? Can’t you help me where I really need the help?
In the early 20th century the dominant churches in America turned away from the authority of scripture. They decided – thanks in large part to the dean of Princeton Seminary – Benjamin Warfield, that God didn’t do miracles. God didn’t heal. That the signs and wonders, miracles, prophecies, tongues and healings of the New Testament – all stopped when the last Apostle died at the end of the 1st century.
And the church bowed down at the throne of modern science and rationalism, and left the power of God behind. If you take away the power of God from the people of God, all you have left is a group of people who spend their time ‘wishing’ things were different:
• “Gosh, I’m sorry you are sick. I sure hope you get feeling better.”
The very people who should have the power – don’t! And millions of people have turned away from Christianity because they don’t see what possible good it would do to be a Christian if all it is is a set of religious beliefs and hopeful wishing.
The NEED is great. Those who SHOULD HAVE the power don’t – so the father goes directly to Jesus.
Look at verse 17-18
“O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.” V. 17-18
3. Christ’s power MEETS the need. v. 17-18
Do you see Jesus’ frustration? He calls his disciples ‘unbelievers’ – He says that they are ‘perverse’ – the word ‘perverse’ means ‘to have strayed away from the right path’ or ‘to oppose the plans of God’ – These very men that Jesus has taught and invested in, lack the faith to see what God would have them do to meet the need.
So, Christ cannot stand idly by. He intervenes in power. He casts out the demon and heals the boy. How? Through a power encounter between Himself and the enemy.
Do you know what a ‘power encounter’ is?
A power encounter occurs when the people of God – lead by the Holy Spirit – come up against any activity of satan and seek to take back what rightfully belongs to God and His Kingdom.
Jesus sees the effect of satan, and goes after it – reclaiming the little boy for the glory of God the Father! And as God’s people – we are to do the same thing. This is what is needed in our 21st century world.
But do you know how to operate in the power of God? And if not, why not?
4. What’s our problem? V. 19-20a
What do we lack? What are we missing?
Look at verse 19:
“Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith.” V. 19-20a
“Because you have so little faith.”
Yes, we believe the right things for salvation. Our theology is sound. We’ve got the fundamentals down – but – to move into a new level of empowerment and effective ministry – we need a new kind of faith – a purer, faith.
Let me explain: We are all products of our culture, our environment, our families and our nation. As Americans we learned from an early age that SCIENCE and REASON were the final arbiters of what is right and what is possible. And I’m grateful for SCIENCE and REASON – but they aren’t the final answer.
As Christians – we must come to see that GOD transcends and is not limited by the so-called laws of science and the ability of man to reason. If God cannot work outside the bounds of man’s understanding of science and ability to reason – than God becomes subject to science and reason. Which makes science and reason greater than God.
And, when we as people come to see that God is larger than science and able to do things that we cannot wrap our minds around – we will begin to BELIEVE at a level that enables us to cooperate with Him in doing the miraculous!
Yet, to be a Christian is to believe in the supernatural. Without the supernatural, Christ stayed in the grave – and your faith is in vain. If God is able to raise His Son from the dead – for His purposes – can’t He raise the dead, heal the sick and free the captives today for His glory!
This requires a major shift in our thinking and a willingness to go beyond the bounds of all of our training and experience.
The disciples were unable to help the boy because they didn’t believe they could. We don’t operate in the power of the Holy Spirit because we don’t believe we can. It’s that simple.
Yet – there’s hope. God isn’t finished.
Paul wrote:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2
The world and its prince wants you to be conformed to it’s ideas. They want you to be cynical and jaded and small.
God wants you to be transformed to what’s really real. And as you are transformed – you will be empowered to know and to do God’s will in this sick and desperate world.
That’s what happened in the lives of Jesus’ disciples and that’s what can happen to us!
Look at the next part of verse 20 – for Jesus says…
5. Faith makes the impossible, POSSIBLE. V. 20b
“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” V. 20b
A lot of people have misused this verse. They’ve used it to teach and practive a ‘name-it-and-claim-it’ form of Christianity where they say that if you have enough faith – nothing bad will happen to you in this life. That you’ll never suffer financially, emotionally or physically.
That is not what Jesus is saying.
Get this in the context of the verse: Faith can move mountains IF the mountain needs moving in order to accomplish God’s will!
The boy NEEDED freedom from the domain of darkness. Faith can cast out the enemy – faith can bring deliverance! Why do we know this? Because it is God’s will that everyone find salvation in Christ and that every area that satan has stolen be reclaimed for the glory of God.
Jesus isn’t talking about using FAITH as a tool for selfishness – He is talking about using FAITH to retrieve what belongs to Him and to advance His purposes!
If your life sold out to advancing God’s kingdom – your faith will move anything that gets in the way of that!
CONCLUSION:
Listen to these words from 1 John 5:4-5 –
“For every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory. And the ones who win this battle against the world are the ones who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 John 5:4-5 NLT
It’s time to stop believing blindly what we’ve been told by our culture and to open up to the possibilities that faith brings to our lives – in order that our lives will be involved with God in taking back what belongs to Him.
INTRODUCTION:
Dr. John Chacha is an evangelist to the Muslim World – listen to this story he tells:
"I began serving Jesus as a student. Once, I went with some other students to a
predominantly Muslim island to preach. We set up our loudspeakers and told the
people that we were there to tell them about Jesus. The Mullah immediately
began heckling. "We don't believe that Jesus was the Son of God, just a
prophet. Get off our island, or we will kill you. You have a few minutes to
pack up and leave." So we packed up, because none of us wanted to die. But the
Spirit of the Lord told me "Go back. If they cannot accept Jesus as the Son of
God, I have another idea." So we went back, set up the loudspeakers again, and
started to sing. The people came, but with stones in their hands, just waiting
to stone us. I told them "We are not here to tell you about Jesus the Son of
God, but about Jesus, the doctor!" "Jesus the doctor? OK, tell us about him,"
they said. I asked whether they had any sick. "Bring me a sick person. We will
pray for them in the name of Jesus. If they are healed, will you believe that
Jesus is the Son of God, crucified, risen and sitting at the right hand of
God?" "If your Jesus can do that, then he is not only the Son of God, he is God
himself!" they replied. They brought someone, but it was a shock for me. I had
been expecting someone with a headache or back pain, but they brought a blind
woman.
My faith almost vanished. I prayed "God, please let the earth open up and
swallow me." The other students started to vanish in the crowd, because I had
told them to make their escape. In this moment of my weakness, the Holy Spirit
said to me "Son, I am strong enough to defend my own Word. You do not need to
defend me. Your job is just to believe." So I just prayed a very simple prayer:
"God, open these blind eyes, so that these people recognise that Jesus is the
Son of God." The power of God came upon the woman, her eyes opened and she
shouted "I can see! I can see!" I started shouting, too! "The Bible works! The
Word of God is real!" The Mullah came to me, saying "We give you our mosque.
Please tell our people about Jesus, the Son of God!"
Source: Dr. John Chacha, web site www.teamworkministries.com
Today we are going to talk about this kind of POWER. Turn to Matthew 17:14
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 4:20 some very important words.
“For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20 NKJV
The nature of God’s Kingdom is not WORD – but POWER. We live in a world that is filled with POWER STRUGGLES – and ultimately all power struggles have a common root: Who will be in charge – God or satan?
Today we speak the issue of…
POWER: The New Christian knows how to operate in the power of God, to do the impossible in order to be a witness for Christ!
I want you to turn to Matthew 17:14ff. We are going to see in this story – how the power of God is to be manifested in our lives and in our ministries.
“When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”” Matthew 17:14-20, NIV.
1. The NEED for power is great. v. 14-15
• A father brings his demon-possessed son to Jesus. It’s killing him. It’s destroying his life. This is the work of the enemy – stealing territory from God. Little boys aren’t supposed to be demon-possessed. That’s not God’s will.
• He brings him to Jesus – anticipating that Jesus has the power to do something about it.
• Has anything changed in our world today?
• Aren’t there people who are suffering in the hands of abuse, perversion, divorce, abandonment?
• Doesn’t pornography, sexual perversion, child molestation and rape seem to increase every year?
• Don’t you know people – in your sphere of influence – who need God’s power to change their lives – to bring them to freedom – to heal their brokenness?
• Is it God’s will that the enemy possesses so much of His territory? No, it isn’t.
The NEED for power is great. It is obvious. It is glaring. POWER is needed in order to change the world.
Now, we read in verse 16 that this father had already brought the boy to the disciples of Jesus – but they weren’t able to help him.
2. Those who SHOULD HAVE the power don’t. v. 16
“I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” v. 16
Imagine the frustration of that father – he brings his boy to the disciples of Jesus – anticipating something good, and gets nothing. Can you feel his sense of despair? His sense of loss – ‘Aren’t you the men who have been with Jesus? Can’t you help me where I really need the help?
In the early 20th century the dominant churches in America turned away from the authority of scripture. They decided – thanks in large part to the dean of Princeton Seminary – Benjamin Warfield, that God didn’t do miracles. God didn’t heal. That the signs and wonders, miracles, prophecies, tongues and healings of the New Testament – all stopped when the last Apostle died at the end of the 1st century.
And the church bowed down at the throne of modern science and rationalism, and left the power of God behind. If you take away the power of God from the people of God, all you have left is a group of people who spend their time ‘wishing’ things were different:
• “Gosh, I’m sorry you are sick. I sure hope you get feeling better.”
The very people who should have the power – don’t! And millions of people have turned away from Christianity because they don’t see what possible good it would do to be a Christian if all it is is a set of religious beliefs and hopeful wishing.
The NEED is great. Those who SHOULD HAVE the power don’t – so the father goes directly to Jesus.
Look at verse 17-18
“O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.” V. 17-18
3. Christ’s power MEETS the need. v. 17-18
Do you see Jesus’ frustration? He calls his disciples ‘unbelievers’ – He says that they are ‘perverse’ – the word ‘perverse’ means ‘to have strayed away from the right path’ or ‘to oppose the plans of God’ – These very men that Jesus has taught and invested in, lack the faith to see what God would have them do to meet the need.
So, Christ cannot stand idly by. He intervenes in power. He casts out the demon and heals the boy. How? Through a power encounter between Himself and the enemy.
Do you know what a ‘power encounter’ is?
A power encounter occurs when the people of God – lead by the Holy Spirit – come up against any activity of satan and seek to take back what rightfully belongs to God and His Kingdom.
Jesus sees the effect of satan, and goes after it – reclaiming the little boy for the glory of God the Father! And as God’s people – we are to do the same thing. This is what is needed in our 21st century world.
But do you know how to operate in the power of God? And if not, why not?
4. What’s our problem? V. 19-20a
What do we lack? What are we missing?
Look at verse 19:
“Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith.” V. 19-20a
“Because you have so little faith.”
Yes, we believe the right things for salvation. Our theology is sound. We’ve got the fundamentals down – but – to move into a new level of empowerment and effective ministry – we need a new kind of faith – a purer, faith.
Let me explain: We are all products of our culture, our environment, our families and our nation. As Americans we learned from an early age that SCIENCE and REASON were the final arbiters of what is right and what is possible. And I’m grateful for SCIENCE and REASON – but they aren’t the final answer.
As Christians – we must come to see that GOD transcends and is not limited by the so-called laws of science and the ability of man to reason. If God cannot work outside the bounds of man’s understanding of science and ability to reason – than God becomes subject to science and reason. Which makes science and reason greater than God.
And, when we as people come to see that God is larger than science and able to do things that we cannot wrap our minds around – we will begin to BELIEVE at a level that enables us to cooperate with Him in doing the miraculous!
Yet, to be a Christian is to believe in the supernatural. Without the supernatural, Christ stayed in the grave – and your faith is in vain. If God is able to raise His Son from the dead – for His purposes – can’t He raise the dead, heal the sick and free the captives today for His glory!
This requires a major shift in our thinking and a willingness to go beyond the bounds of all of our training and experience.
The disciples were unable to help the boy because they didn’t believe they could. We don’t operate in the power of the Holy Spirit because we don’t believe we can. It’s that simple.
Yet – there’s hope. God isn’t finished.
Paul wrote:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2
The world and its prince wants you to be conformed to it’s ideas. They want you to be cynical and jaded and small.
God wants you to be transformed to what’s really real. And as you are transformed – you will be empowered to know and to do God’s will in this sick and desperate world.
That’s what happened in the lives of Jesus’ disciples and that’s what can happen to us!
Look at the next part of verse 20 – for Jesus says…
5. Faith makes the impossible, POSSIBLE. V. 20b
“I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” V. 20b
A lot of people have misused this verse. They’ve used it to teach and practive a ‘name-it-and-claim-it’ form of Christianity where they say that if you have enough faith – nothing bad will happen to you in this life. That you’ll never suffer financially, emotionally or physically.
That is not what Jesus is saying.
Get this in the context of the verse: Faith can move mountains IF the mountain needs moving in order to accomplish God’s will!
The boy NEEDED freedom from the domain of darkness. Faith can cast out the enemy – faith can bring deliverance! Why do we know this? Because it is God’s will that everyone find salvation in Christ and that every area that satan has stolen be reclaimed for the glory of God.
Jesus isn’t talking about using FAITH as a tool for selfishness – He is talking about using FAITH to retrieve what belongs to Him and to advance His purposes!
If your life sold out to advancing God’s kingdom – your faith will move anything that gets in the way of that!
CONCLUSION:
Listen to these words from 1 John 5:4-5 –
“For every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory. And the ones who win this battle against the world are the ones who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 John 5:4-5 NLT
It’s time to stop believing blindly what we’ve been told by our culture and to open up to the possibilities that faith brings to our lives – in order that our lives will be involved with God in taking back what belongs to Him.
posted by Doug Love at 5:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home