I love the old hymns, full of
truth. Adam was talking with the Lord and asked the Lord, why did you
make Eve so beautiful? The Lord said, so you would love
her. Adam said, why did you give her
beautiful blue eyes and long blonde hair? The Lord said, so
you would love her. Adam said, why did you give her
such a beautiful figure? The Lord said, so you would love
her. Finally, Adam said, Lord, why
did you make Mother Eve so dumb? The Lord said, so she would love
you. All right. Laughter is so good. Amen. It's good medicine to be able
to laugh. And it's great to see religious
people laugh. Some of you are way too somber.
The gospel is good news and glad tidings. All of us are a mess and the
Lord has saved us and there ought to be a smile on our face, right? I want to talk to you this morning
about the The power of God. You know what I'm finding out
about myself is that I have lived spiritually on Section 8 all
my life. Undervaluing. Really not seeing
how big my God was. Not feeling good about myself.
You know, Christians ought to feel good about themselves. Really,
you're a God creation. Amen. If you're a child of God
and you don't feel somewhat good about yourself, you can't feel
good about anything else. It's well with my soul. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians
1 and 2 talks about that power. I love the 19th verse where he
says, He's praying for the folks at Ephesus and he says, I want
you to know what is the exceeding greatness of his power. I want you to know that. Paul
said, I'm praying that you might know that. The exceeding greatness
of his power to us. Who believe, and then watch,
he says it again. Who believe, how do we believe?
According to the working of his mighty power. Mighty power, the
exceeding greatness of his power. The new birth is a miracle. Salvation is a miracle. Salvation
is something God does. Now I'm going to take the backdoor
approach to this by, first of all, laboring this a bit. Have
you ever felt powerless? Most of the time we go through
life not ever really feeling or experiencing anything close
to powerlessness. Really, it's not until we find
ourselves in an overwhelming situation that we succumb to
the fact that we are strengthless. Strengthless. Every child of
God, born of the Spirit of God, is going to be brought by the
Holy Spirit to this point of without strength. Before you know God in salvation
power, He's going to bring you to the place where you cry, uncle, till you give up. where you know
you can't save yourself. If he were going to save you
with you thinking that you had a part in it, you wouldn't say
salvation's of the Lord. So he brings you to that point
where you are powerless. I believe all of us, before we
leave this world, are going to have such an experience. And
when you stand before Lord, Christian or no, Your knees are going to
buckle and your tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ
is boss man. That Jesus Christ is Lord. I myself, I was thinking this
week of powerless, without strength experiences that I've had. One
was, of course, when Pam had the wreck, standing in the morgue,
looking on that slab at my firstborn. My little boy, powerless. Usually it's in those moments
when the child of God is experiencing that, that it's good to know
that you have a God who is not powerless. The other experience
I had was when I was blown away by a tornado sitting in my 98-0s
in Lancaster, Kentucky, or near Lancaster, Kentucky. I was powerless. That 98 began to rock like this
and go sideways. You know, I knew for sure that
I was powerless at that moment. And of course, recently watching
Pam die, powerless. It's an awesome experience. Even as I speak, some of you
bow down before the demons of addiction, feeling that you are
without strength. And there are some of you who
are Christians, who are children of God, who are wrestling with
that. I want you to know that demons
have no power over you. that our God is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that you ask or think. You and I shouldn't
be taking, I'm talking about Christians now, a powerless position. Somehow our mind needs to be
renewed to the point where we clearly understand how big our
God is. Where we don't bow down to cancer. Amen, or depression, or the loss of loved ones who are diagnosed with disease,
where we feel helpless. No Christian is in a helpless
position. Now in your head you may be,
and it's because your theology is all balled up, and because
we do not know and do not enter into this fact of how big our
God is. You may be lonely today. You're
a child of God, and you're lonely. You don't understand why you're
lonely. Let me tell you this. The more
you grow in grace, the bigger God gets in the renewing of your
mind, the less lonely you are. I mean, God has said all kinds
of wonderful things to us lonely people. I'll never leave you
nor forsake you. Never alone. No, never alone.
You're never alone. His eye is on the sparrow and
he watches over me. I'm special to him. He's chose
me. He's redeemed me. He's called
me. He indwells me. I am not alone. Be careful what you self prophesy
and what comes out of your mouth. You need to talk Christian talk.
The Christian talk is this, I can do all things through Christ
that strengtheneth me. Some of you have dreams that
you buried a long time ago because you got to the place where you
believed they were never gonna come to pass. You're still breathing,
aren't you? And God is a big God. Dream your
dreams. I want this church to be filled
with people who are smiling and happy and dreaming dreams and
believing that God is able. Amen. I know he's able to give you
strength. I know that God is able to do supernatural things
through his people. Somebody asked me, you know,
and for years, because You know, when I was in my younger years,
the Chrismatic movement was really growing, and, you know, I was
a chosen frozen Baptist, and people used to ask me, do you
believe in signs and wonders? And I used to go, I don't think
so, not now. That was for way back then. You
know, the same God back then, is God today. The God who gave
sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, healed the leper. I said, Pastor, what are you
saying? Just what you think I'm saying,
that God is able. One of the reasons we don't see
the great things of God is because we really don't believe that
God is able. We don't know how big our God
is. Now, I will tell you this. I don't operate on just seeing
signs and wonders. Here's my theme. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross. On a hill far away stood an old
rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. I'm determined to
know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. But
along, let me tell you, my friend, whatever he bought and paid for
at the cross is mine. He bought every spiritual gift,
every blessing, every healing, every miracle. He paid for it. Every good and perfect gift.
I'm about to get happy by myself here. Every good and perfect
gift comes down from the Father above. Amen, and he has things
in store for you Some of you guys and gals sitting way back
because you don't want to get close to the fire today You're
not sure about this thing. Let me tell you you have shipwrecked
Maybe ended up over 35 Easter on in the rescue mission, but
that doesn't mean God's through with you Some of you are 40 50
years old and have used drugs all your life, but that doesn't
mean God is through with you and That doesn't mean God has
no plans for you. He does indeed. All right, real
quick. Have you ever considered simply
this? His creative power. Have you
ever thought about this? The Bible says in Genesis 1,
and God said, let there be. And it was so. Think about that a little bit.
This God is able from nothing to make something. Now, that
just doesn't register with us. A long time ago, a young man
made this for me. And somebody said, oh, that's
Bob's workmanship. No, not really. He didn't entirely
make this. God made the wood. I mean, it
wasn't entirely Bob's workmanship, was it? God had given him a gift
of carpentry. And what I'm saying is simply
this, only God can take nothing and make something, but God can
do that. And he did that in the first
creation. Do you know there's 2 billion stars in our solar
system? 2 billion. Two to three trillion planets. One billion Earth-sized stars. Did you know that? Just think
about this a little bit. Two to three trillion planets. One billion Earth-sized stars. One billion. Sounds like the United States
deficit, doesn't it? Just think about that. That's
how big our God is. Our God is big in creation. But
you know, if we come down from that, because none of us in here
can grasp that, we think about our little earth here. And there
are billions of those. And then now scientists are talking
about the black holes that they don't get into where there's,
you know, the same deal over again. Did you know your God
is that big? Is there anything your God can't
do? Then why are we living like paupers? Why do we live on section
eight, right, spiritually? Why aren't we believing that
our God is able to do the most miraculous things with us? Why
don't we dream our dreams? I was thinking this week, this
is really bringing it down now about if you consider his power
with those things that he created, do you know that in the Bible
he made a rooster crow three times right at the right time? Think about how big, think about
all the roosters. During Simon Peter's day in denial
of the Lord, and he made that rooster crow. Have you read in the Old Testament
where he made the jackass talk? Now that, I love that. My God
is so big that he made a jackass talk. And he made the preacher
talk back to the jackass. That too is a miracle. You ought
to read that story. I was thinking about how he covered
Egypt with locusts. He made all the frogs in the
world hop to Egypt. He covered the earth with darkness
for three days. He made flies swarm. He caused man and beast to have
boils. He brought lice and gnats to
cover the land. He put a large fish at the right
place at the right time to swallow the right preacher. And Jonah
got a free ride all the way to his preaching destination. He
didn't smell real good and got spit up on dry ground. Is that
right? He can roll back the ocean on
either side. and send a wind to dry the land
so his people walk through dry shod. He sets the moon in the
stars. He woke you up this morning. He woke you up this morning.
And you know what? As sure as he woke you up this
morning, he has a plan for you. And it's ordained. And I don't
care where you are, how old you are, how young you are, as a
child of God, your God is a God of planning and purpose. And something we all ought to
remember is the exceeding power to usward who believe. We used to sing here and in other
churches that I go, he made a believer. He made a believer out of me.
Do you know God made a believer out of you? Have you ever thought
how much power it took to make a believer out of you? Think about this. You know, I
talk about this a lot, but we really need to think about it,
that before you were formed in your mother's belly, he had already
chosen you. This God that we saw, this God of creation, this
God who makes the roosters crow, this God of minute planning and
purpose chose you before you were ever formed in your mother's
belly. Think about that. And that he so loved you that
he sent his only begotten son into the world to die in your
room and your stead and your place before you had even committed
the sins that you've committed. Now that's planning, brother.
He's the great architect. He's determined to bring you
to glory, to good, to heaven. No more sickness, no more sorrow,
no more death, no more sin. He's determined to do that. And
he's also determined that you have a life. God is after some of you here.
He's on your trail. You've turned your back. All
we like sheep have gone astray, but he's determined to catch
up with you. Do you know that he's faster
than you are? He will outrun you. He said,
well, pastor. Oh, that's Bible. The apostle
Paul said, I've been apprehended. I was apprehended. The blue light came on behind
me. I was caught. All he seeks he saves. I'm glad
he's on your trail today. Today may be the day when he
catches up with you, takes hold of you, turns you around today,
gives you life today. I'm talking about exceeding power. How strong is this thing when
you put God's will and God's power together? It is God's will. to save you. I've heard this
verse quoted in opposition to what I preach, but let me just
give it to you. Say, well, pastor, God is not
willing that any should perish. And people have said, that means
everybody. Well, let me just say this. Let
me tell you, if God's not willing about something, it ain't gonna
happen. You know why? Because he's all
powerful. Oh, let me come down there where
you are. I've sensed this. God is not willing that any should
perish, but God is willing that all come to repentance. I don't
know exactly who that all is, but I know that all is coming
to repentance because God is big. And when God says, I'm not
willing, then whoever he's not willing that they perish, not
gonna perish. Think about that. You're not
going to perish because God's not willing you perish. Who are
you going to give the glory to then? I'm going to give it all
to God. Now, for you free will folks, just let me throw this
in here. Let me just say this. You were
willing to perish before God caught up with you. God had to
wrestle with you like he did with Jacob. You are a natural
loser. You fight, you fight against
God. Look at you, look what you do,
look what you naturally think. Paul said, you are all dead.
And you hath he made alive, who were dead in sins and trespasses. You didn't make yourself alive.
So what about that verse where the Lord says, come let us reason
together? He did say that, knowing all
the time that you're not reasonable. God will make you willing. This
is Bible now, don't get mad at me, get mad at God. My people
shall be willing in the day of my power. So I don't want to
be saved. Well, unless you get to the place
where you want to be, you won't be. And the only way you get
where you want to be is for God to get you there. I said, well, you know, that's
not a right God who saves me against my will. God never saves
anybody against their will. He makes them willing. You don't
come to God, no, I don't want to be saved. Yeah, come on now,
you sorry, no good for nothing. Come on now. That's not the way
you get saved. You run to Christ. You can't
get to Christ fast enough. Charlie Waldrop was a full-blooded
Indian. And he followed me around in
my young ministry, but his wife was not converted. And Charlie
used to get excited when I'd preach. I loved to have Charlie
in the audience because he would snort and kick the front pew
and make... And the more the Spirit of God
blessed me to preach, the more Charlie would snort and do his... and kicked a pew, and kicked
a pew. Every once in a while, Charlie had all he could take,
and he'd go, whoo! Everybody didn't like Charlie
being at church when I was preaching. But anyway, one Sunday morning,
I was preaching, and God got a hold of Charlie's wife. And
I mean, she was under deep conviction for sin, and she started out,
you know, passed Charlie out of the aisle to confess faith
in Christ. And Charlie yelled out, get out
of my way, here she comes. That's the way people come to
Christ. Amen. He puts life in a dead man. and
not only puts life in us, but keeps life in us. You know, it's
a glorious thing being saved, but I'll tell you, being kept
by the power of God's a glorious thing too. Because prone to wander,
Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Is that true
or not? Oh yeah. Let me tell you this, if I could
have lost my salvation, first of all, it's God's salvation,
but if I could have lost it, I would have lost it a long time
ago. Sometimes I don't feel so saved. Right now I'm feeling
pretty saved. Right now I'm pretty happy up
here. I'm feeling like I'm a child of God. But sometimes I don't,
and that's true of you too. God not only gives you life,
he sustains life in you. Isn't that something? We're kept
by the power of God. Think about the power it takes
to alter, to alter the state of a man or woman. To take a
wolf and make a sheep. To change the leopard spots. to take the dead and give them
life. And the Apostle Paul in this
verse in Ephesians chapter 1 and 2 says the same power that raised
Jesus Christ up on Sunday morning is the same power that God has
exerted in giving you life, in making you alive, in quickening
you. Somebody ought to say hallelujah
in here. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
the same God who said, let there be light in the creation, Paul
said, has shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Think about
the power of almighty God and praise him for it. I'm glad he's
not a weak, frustrated God. but a powerful God, and that
he loves us with all of his strength and with all of his heart. Think
about what it means to be loved of God, who's all-powerful. He
loves us with all of his strength. With all of his power, he loves
us. That's why the Apostle Paul said,
I'm persuaded that neither death nor life, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other
creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus. and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. No man's able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand. My Father which gave them me
is great at all. Thank you, Holy Spirit, today.
Thank you for being here. Thank you for driving this truth
home that our God is a mighty God and that he's able. And if
God be for us, think about it, child of God, think about it.
If God is for you, who can be against you effectually? This
God who is all-powerful and awesome. The apostle says we're kept by
the power of God, the apostle Peter. because he's able to subdue
all things. He has defeated every one of
your enemies. And he uses your enemies as his
footstool. That's what Paul says. Your enemies. You have some enemies, don't
you? Lots of enemies we have. The enemy of sin and death and
the grave. I love to think about it this
way when I'm having a Friday. Today may be Friday, but Sunday's
coming. Up from the grave he arose on
Sunday morning. I mean, it didn't look good on
Friday, but I'll tell you, by Sunday, things were looking mighty
bright. There was an empty tomb. I want you to think about it,
because you can't, and I can't, live life. We're going to be
negative. We're going to be defeated. We're going to live in Section
8 all of our lives unless we begin to realize who we are.
Hey, I'm a child of the king. My name's written in the book. I'm in the will, and he's not
going to take me out of the will. I have an inheritance, incorruptible
and undefiled. I'm gonna be glorified. There's
a new heavens and a new earth waiting me. I won't have to cross
Jordan alone. Jesus died all my sins to atone. When the darkness I see, he'll
be waiting for me. I won't have to cross Jordan
alone. Because of the power of God. Now specifically and kind
of in closing, because it's 1201. I want you to think about this
power working in you. You know, most of my ministry,
and most of my life, my spiritual life, and I'm not knocking the
Baptists because they have a rich history, but I am saying this,
that somehow or another, my particular little group, you know we have
groupies in religion. You know, we have the Baptists,
and the Catholics, and the Methodists, and the Presbyterians, but you
know, whoever goes to heaven is gonna go the same way. We're
all going to get there the same way, whether you're Catholic
or Baptist or Presbyterian or Pentecostal. We're going to get
there the same way. It's going to be through Christ and through
his blood, right? And what God has done for us. But we were independent missionary
Baptists. We were almost independent of
God. And we moved the church into
the forefront. You think about how people named
their church, Church of God. Church of God in Christ. First
Church of God. You know, we name ourselves like
our little clique is the only one, but I'm going to tell you,
God's got a big family. And all of them aren't Methodists or
Baptists or Presbyterians or Catholics. They're all who've
been washed in the blood of Christ. And I want to tell you something
else. And this is glorious to me. And the reason I said all
of that is to say this, that I was raised where the more you
did, the greater reward you got. It was kind of a God saves you,
and then you do all these things. And when you get to heaven, some
of you are going to drive Cadillacs and live on Main Street. Some
of you are going to drive Fords and live back in the back streets. Don't tell Fords I said that
about them. That's not the way it's going to be in heaven. We're
going to be one in Christ in heaven. All sinners saved by
the grace of God. And we're going to give him all
the glory and all the praise and all the honor. But I said all that, so I grew
up thinking this self-effort stuff, that really, you know,
I was all by myself. And not only that, but I was
battling things. I was battling as a 16-year-old
or 17-year-old, I was battling lust and my sexuality. I'm just
talking straight to you here. I'm talking about all the things
we go through in life and really kind of lost myself and kind
of gave up where, you know, the preaching was, we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of the deeds
done in the body, whether they be good or bad. And I thought
to myself, ooh, I'd like to bypass that. I don't have a judgment to face
because Jesus paid it all. There's no condemnation to those
that are in Christ Jesus. So even though I didn't understand
it, the rucous between me and My dad and family and the Baptist
group till finally they put me out and it was over this It was
over this it's not by works It's not by works you're not good
enough to go to heaven and you can't do good enough to get to
heaven and if you do anything it's because God put it in you
and brought it out of you and And if you do get a diamond studded
yo-yo when you get to heaven, it'll be because he put it in
you, he'll be rewarding his own grace. Amen. Oh, I'm feeling good. But here's my point. Why, knowing this God, why would
you ever say again, I can't? Why would you ever say again,
I am defeated? You know, I've gone through depression,
and I've gone through about everything you've gone through. But you
know, I really had no reason to be depressed. Not really,
I thought I did. Let me just talk to depressed
people, and there's a bunch of us here. Let me tell you this,
your God's bigger than your depression. Don't accept it. Don't believe
it. You saw the planets and the stars
that your God has created. That's your God. But get this,
He indwells you. He's in you. There's a power
working in you. And that was always my argument. God didn't save me and turn me
loose. He's working in me both to will and to do of His good
pleasure. He has ordained these good things
for me. And how do they come to pass?
Well, without faith, it's impossible to please God. The more you grow,
the more you know about Him, the more you trust Him, the greater
things He does. I'll just tell you flat out.
My thoughts about the next 10 years are way up here. I just
asked yesterday, Lord, you know somebody could give us $100 million
if they wanted to. I mean, if you got a big God,
why don't you just go big, right? Or, you know, we want a school,
an elementary school, a kindergarten, high school. Why don't we just
think big? I mean, is our God able to do
that or not? What is impossible to our God?
Nothing. Joseph. Joseph. You ever thought
about Joe? God told Joe, Mary's going to
have a baby. Uh-oh. Joe says, which seems
natural, how can these things be? I would have said more than
that. Amen. And the angel said, the Holy
Ghost shall come upon her. God's spirit. Think about that. The Bible talks
about walking in the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. Jesus said this, except you drink
my blood and eat my flesh, you have no part in me. Well, what
do you mean by that? Well, some churches have made that, that
some hocus pocus thing happens in the Lord's Supper, that you
actually eat the body of Christ when you take the bread and drink
the blood of Christ. Well, that wouldn't be good.
That's not the way you get Christ in you. It is by faith. Right? For by grace are you saved
through faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. And then
we live, faith is the victory. We live by faith. And if I can
preach, and the Spirit of God's so blessed, that in the power of the Spirit
of God, you began to believe that nothing is impossible. For
you, and with you. because God is able. How would
that change your life? Some of you are living defeated
and downcast and discouraged and don't believe it's ever gonna
happen. Believe you me, our God is able to make it happen. And
he's in us, we need to get in touch. I want you to live your dreams. And I'll tell you the way God's
gonna bless this church. He's going to bless you. And
your dreams are going to come true. And you're going to turn
around and bless this congregation and make it stronger. Our offerings
are going to get bigger because God has made you a moneymaker. God's going to take you who haven't
got two pennies to rub together and put a wad in your pocket. You know, because God's able.
Dream your dreams, because you know God is in you. Some of you have generational
curses. Your grandfather was a drunk,
and now here you are being a drunk. You don't have to live a drunk.
God's able to break generational curses. Some of you have been physically
and sexually abused. You don't have to let that continue
with your children. Somebody ought to say amen, it's
happening all the time. And it's because we really don't
think God can break generational curses, but he can. He's able. And not only that, but he wills
to break that. I don't have to be what my grandfather
was. So if your mother or father was
a drug addict, if you don't know anything about being a mother
or father, the truth is God can make a good mommy out of you.
Go ahead and clap. You can clap
for that. God can make a good daddy out
of you. You just need to know who you
are. You're not a prostitute anymore.
You're a child of God. You're past that. And I said
Wednesday night, and I want to say to you, why do you keep remembering
what God has forgotten? Why do you keep bringing up things
that God doesn't bring up? God said, I'll remember your
sins and your trespasses no more. Then why are you remembering
them? It's certainly not God that reminds you. Forgetting
those things which are behind, I press toward the mark of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. High calling of God. God's called you to a high calling. Every one of us in here are not
where we can be. Not where we can be. He's powerful. He's able. I hope today you leave
here A heel bipolar. Okay, I better close out here
because I get in trouble. Somebody say, well I'm just up
and down. You know what? I believe if we believe this,
and my God is big, we could kind of level off a little bit. If
our minds could be just renewed a little bit, we could level
off. Instead of being way down here
in the valley, we could come up here. Right? Amen. I believe that's true. Whatever
your problem, whatever mine is. I said this morning to myself, man, my back is killing me. I
said to myself, I'm going to quit believing that. Say, oh,
pastor, you really, you know, you're 70 years old. You're starting
to really get fire out there. We're gonna have to kind of put
a watch on you because you're starting to believe things. You
know, you're starting to preach things. You're starting to tell
jokes before every sermon. Something's happening to you.
No, just this, Jehovah Jireh. El Shaddai. Mighty provider,
the great I am. He's not the great I used to
be, but author, finisher of our faith. He has ordained good to
you as a child of God. Walk in it, step into it, believe
it. You're not a loser. He has plans
for you and they're good and not evil. Let's stand and praise him. Can
you praise him? Do you believe what I said today?
I hope you do. I hope you do.