It
all comes down to faith: Almighty
Carroll First UMC July 12, 2020
In Vacation Bible School this week we will
be talking about power. One of the activities gives the kids a chance to see
one kind of power in action.
 |
· That
is power caused by a chemical reaction. There are other kinds of power that are
much more powerful.
· There
is electric power or the power of a locomotive pulling a mile of coal cars.
· In
military terms there is the power of bombs and personnel.
· There
is the natural power of gravity, or the sun, or the wind, or the waves.
· There
is interpersonal power between people and political power between a person and
a group.
· There
is the power that comes with money, and the power that comes by fear.
In physics, power is “energy transferred
per unit of time.”
We can measure that in watts, or tractive
force, or horsepower, or kilotons of explosive power. We can see and feel power as gravity pulls
the coffee cup out of our hands and it crashes on the floor, as the sun warms
the top of our head, as the wind pushes our car back and forth in our lane, or
as we look at the water eroded rock of the grand canyon. We experience power in
the way people treat us and whether politicians use their power for good or for
selfishness.
Coke and Mentos is a cool demonstration,
but it is nothing compared to the power of electricity, a train, or
gravity. Similarly, however, the earthly
powers of electricity, trains, gravity and the others I named are nothing
compared to God ’s -- out of this world – indescribable - and unimaginable -- power.
We have a couple words we use to describe
God ’s power. One is “omnipotent.” Literally “many powers.” God is omnipotent which means that there are
no limits to God ’s power. God is by definition free and able to do anything
God might chose. As Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” says, “For the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth!” (Rev. 19:6)
The other word reserved describing
tremendous power is “might.” We talk about the might of a nation or the mighty
cargo ship. God is beyond all earthly might,
however.
God is mightier than all the man-made
machines added together. God is mightier than all the world’s speeding
locomotives. God is mightier than any power in nature like hurricanes, gravity,
or earthquakes. God is mightier than any person or army who
has ever walked the earth. Therefore,
we call God “ALMIGHTY.” ALL- MIGHTY… ALL
POWERFUL.
The first appearance of the Hebrew word
“shadday” which is translated Almighty is in Genesis 17:1
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years
old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty[a]; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my
covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
Shadday means “wilderness or mountain”
But it also can mean to “overpower.”
·
Overpower, as in more than powerful,
·
In the same what that almighty
is mightier than any other,
·
You may have heard the name El Shaddai as part of a song. The
Prefix “el” means God. So, el-Shaddai
means The God who is more than powerful, more than mighty.
Almighty God exercised might and
omnipotence in the very act of creation out of nothing. That is the message
from the very beginning of the Bible. God creates everything out of God ’s
imagination. The earth is without form and void. There was nothing until
almighty God made everything.
Remember power is energy transferred or converted. God ’s almighty power
is transferred to people in the Bible all the time: Noah for ark building,
Abraham for faithfully following, Moses for miracles and crossings of the red
sea. David for defeating the Philistines, Daniel for the night in the lion’s
den.
And the amazing thing is no matter how much power God gives away, the
needle on God’s power gauge always reads Full. There is no end to God’s power.
God keeps giving power in the New Testament. What was the incarnation if
it wasn’t a demonstration that God has power to do whatever God wills, even
taking on the form of a human being? We see power or energy or might transferred
in the baptism when the dove came down from heaven as a sign on God’s power. How
do you think it was possible for Jesus to defeat the devil in the wilderness
temptations if it wasn’t the power of God? Then there are all the miracles:
calming the sea, healing lepers, raising Lazarus, the feeding of the 5000,
healing the woman who touched the hem of his garment that we talked about last
week. All that power, all that might, all our strength comes directly from the
heart of God.
People look around and wonder “where is
God.” They say, “prove to me that God exists.”
I think the greatest evidence of our almighty God is the cross and
resurrection. Because God is almighty, God can choose death in order to defeat
sin, and then God can choose resurrection to defeat death.
People look around and wonder “where is
God.” They say, “prove to me that God exists.” we say, “look around at all the
evidence and prove to me that God doesn’t exist.”
People say “prove to me that God is powerful.”
and we reply “Explain to me every detail of this beautiful creation both large
and small and (if God is not powerful) explain to me how all of that came to be
out of chaos.
They’re right… God is invisible so we cannot
directly measure the almightiness of God in the same way we measure horsepower
or electricity. But invisible… or unseeable does not mean God is not almighty.
Invisible or unseen does not mean powerless.
There is another experiment in the VBS video
this week that demonstrates the power of the air around us to crush a metal
container. You’ll have to watch the video to see it.
We can’t see the power of air, but when
you see it crush a can in 1 second, you know there is power.
We can’t see static electricity, but I
would not want to be struck by lightning.
We can’t see photosynthesis, but I will
still sit in the shade under a big tree.
The real trouble is not that we can’t see
it, but that we don’t look. We don’t look
for the displays of God ’s almighty power.
We don’t sit still long enough for the almightiness of God to change us.
We know it is there, but we don’t even
try to connect to it.
A young missionary, Herbert Jackson, was
given a car to help him in his work. There was only one problem—it would not start
without a push or a jump-start. Jackson devised a system to cope with the car’s
inability to start. When he was ready to leave his home, he went to a nearby
school and asked permission to bring some of the children out of class to help
him push-start his car.
Throughout the day, he was careful to
always park on a hill or to leave his engine running when he stopped for short
visits. For two years the young missionary used what he believed was an
ingenious method to enable him to use the car.
When poor health forced the Jackson family
to leave the field, a new missionary arrived to lead the mission. When Jackson
explained to the new missionary his methods for starting the car, the young man
opened the hood and began inspecting. “Why, Dr. Jackson,” he interrupted, “I
believe the only trouble is the loose battery cable.” He gave the cable a twist,
turned the key, and the engine roared to life.
For two years, Dr. Jackson had used his
own devices and endured needless trouble. The power to start the car was there
all the time-- Jackson couldn’t see it so he didn’t know how to plug in.
The invisible power was there… but he
never made the connection.
A. W. Tozer said something like “God is
looking for people who will try seemingly incredible things, so that through
them God can do the impossible. What a pity that we plan only the things we can
do by ourselves.”
God is the almighty God. Believe it or
not… see it or not… understand it or not. Let’s open our eyes to see the
almighty power of God, open our hearts to be changed by the almighty love of God,
and offer our hands to be part of the work the almighty is doing today.
Paul writes in Ephesians 3:2 God is “able
to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power at
work within us,”
Let’s recognize our inadequacy without God
and our invincibility with Him.
May the almighty power of God be the
measure of our expectations.
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