Power Unleashed Series

What if God showed up in ways in your life that simply defy human explanation? What if He did for you something that you could not do for yourself? What if the stamp of the supernatural was such a part of your life that everyone around you said, “Look at what’s happening for him. Look at what’s going on in her life. There must be a God!” What if God unleashed His power for you?

I have to honest. I’m facing some things as a leader here at church and at home that are too big for me. I just have questions, not answers. I know I need the Lord to show up with wisdom and strength.

Weightlifting illustration.

I know I need the Lord to show up with wisdom and strength. I know I’m not alone.

Where would you like to find God showing up with power for you? Maybe you’re just finishing school and starting a new career. Maybe you have a strained relationship with a spouse or family member. Maybe you’re wanting to overcome a sin that keeps tripping you up. Maybe you’re in sales and you’re facing a quota that seems insurmountable. Where would you like to see God’s power on display in your life?

We need Him to open doors for us. We need Him to lift the weight that we can’t lift. We need Him to do things for us that we can’t do for ourselves. A simple question: Has the power of God been unleashed in your life?

We’re beginning a new series today. It will take us through Easter. I hope you are praying about who you can invite. On Easter, we’ll look at the last three verses in this chapter in a talk titled: The Life You’ve Always Wanted.

Next week, we’ll be looking at verses 4-6, some of the most significant verses in all the Bible about forgiveness. Seven hundred years before Jesus came into the world, God opened the eyes of this man named Isaiah to see into the very heart of what Jesus would do to save us. The Christ is pierced in our place. Don’t miss next week. Bring a friend.

More on that next week, but today, “power unleashed.” Isaiah 53 starts with two questions:

1Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

Isaiah 53:1 (ESV)

It’s that second question that grabbed my attention this week. To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? Who sees it? Who watches it be displayed in real life?

I want the answer to be me! I want the answer to be my family! I want the answer to be you!

Now, why do I have such passion about this? It’s because of what this phrase, “The arm of the Lord,” means.

Arm – zerowah - help, power, strength

The “arm of the Lord” points to His impact through us, His might for us, His protection of us. Who wouldn’t want that! Who wouldn’t want that for the people you love?

I want this for me. I want this for my family. I want this for you! I want God to show up in our lives in ways that we haven’t seen before. I want for people to have to say, “There must be a God because God did for them what they could not do for themselves.”

I spent time this past week just looking a this phrase in other places in the Bible. Let me share with you just a little of what I found.

I want the “arm of the Lord”

unleashed in my life because…

1. … I need His liberty.

This image, the arm of the Lord, points to His great power – a power that’s available to His people… to us! God’s people in the OT were slaves in Egypt. But God’s arm moved to rescue them – to free them.

They are Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your great power and Your outstretched arm.

Deuteronomy 9:29 (NASB)

God is still freeing people today. Freedom from dead religion. Freedom from addictions. Freedom from panic and worry and doubt and confusion. Freedom from selfishness. Freedom from sin. He frees us from eternal punishment when we turn from sin and trust in Him. He frees us to love Him and love others.

I want God’s outstretched arm to work for liberty in my life.

I need His liberty.

2. … I need His victory.

The arm of the Lord points to the fact that He wins – all the time – even when it may look like a defeat at first. God’ wins don’t always look like ours. Look at the cross –the place He was pierced. It looked like a defeat. But the arm of the Lord turned it into a win – the most awesome win ever!