God's Power In Our Weakness Series

A spiritual leader named Henry Varley shared some words that still serve to challenge God’s people. Here are the words: “The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through and in and by a man who is fully consecrated to Christ.” God used these words to change a man named D.L. Moody forever.

As Moody, at the time a Chicago shoe salesman, thought about these words, he wrote, “He said ‘a man.’ He didn’t say a great ‘man,’ a learned ‘man,’ or a smart ‘man.’ He just simply said ‘a man.’ I’m a ‘man.’ And it lies within me whether I will or will not make this full consecration to Christ. I will do my best to be that ‘man.’”

D.L. Moody went on to start one of the greatest churches and Sunday Schools in all of America. He was the Billy Graham of his day, traveling around the world winning thousands and thousands to Christ. Christian radio stations around the world, including our own WCRF, were started by his ministry and still carry his name. The Moody Bible Institute in Chicago continues to train world-class leaders that impact the nations.

It’s all because he took seriously this challenge: “The world has yet to see what God will do with and for and through and in and by a man who is fully consecrated to Christ.”

What would happen if you took those words seriously? Do you think God could use you?

“Who me?” “Yes, you!” “But I’m too weak. You don’t know how many times I’ve tried and tried to follow Christ closely and failed. That’s not for me. Can’t be.”

In the Bible is a man who tried and tried to follow Christ closely but failed time and time again… miserably. His name is Peter. He went to sleep when he should have been praying. He promised that he’d follow Jesus all the way to the death, but when he thought he might have to suffer a little, he denied that He even knew Jesus. He constantly was saying the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way. He was weak.

Yet God showed His power in Peter’s life. If he can do that with Peter, he can do that with you.

God’s power in your weakness

Text: Acts 3:1-10

Series: Life Under Construction

Most of us are not the people God uses in big ways. He uses us in little ways. But not in big ways.

Yesterday, some of us from CVCC were at a conference on prayer and holiness. Greg Frizzell, our speaker, reminded us that 1905 was the last nation-wide spiritual awakening for the US. Almost 100 years since any kind of big move of God. None of us has seen a true spiritual awakening. In our day – in our time – on our watch, we have seen the worst moral and spiritual collapse in our nation’s history. We need desperately need to see God move in big ways. Dr. Frizzell said, “Our nation has slid to Sodom and Gomorrah. We are poised for a cataclysmic judgment… or a revival.”

Greg Frizzell reminded us about a great spiritual awakening in Wales. The churches were dry and dead. Hundreds of thousands of people didn’t care about God. But God began to move in big ways. People who never thoughts about God suddenly could think of nothing but God. The presence of God became real. In 6 months time, 100,000 people became Christ-followers. That was 10% of the population of the whole nation!

Think with me. If that happened in America, almost 30,000,000 people would come to faith. If that happened in NE Ohio, 200,000 to 300,000 people would start following Christ. In a five mile radius of our property, there are 100,000 people. If God began to move in big ways like He has in the past, 10,000 people within a five mile radius of CVCC would be utterly transformed by God.

What’s that going to take? It’s going to take men and women and teens and boys and girls to be the kind of people God can use in big ways. This morning, I have seven

God can use me in big ways when I …

1. … am filled with the Spirit. (see Acts 2:1-4)

It goes without saying, but let me say it anyway. You can’t really understand Acts 3 without understanding Acts 2. In Acts 2, Peter was with the other followers of Jesus waiting. For what?

The resurrection had happened. Peter and the others had received marching orders from Jesus. They watched Him ascend into heaven. Time to go to work, right? No. Time to wait.

Jesus said, “Before you go to work for Me, I want you to wait to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” So, Peter and the others waited. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit came in power. The Holy Spirit flowing through Peter’s life is the kind of life he was living when God used him in a big way. In explaining it, Peter quoted from an Old Testament passage: