A. It’s with a touch of sadness on my part, maybe not yours, that I bring this series to an end.
1. All this Fall, we have been focusing on some fundamental, transforming truths.
2. We have tried to understand and appreciate transforming truths like: God loves us, God forgives us, and God saves us by His grace.
3. We have embraced truths like: We have a purpose, we can overcome temptation, we don’t have to be afraid, and we can be thankful.
4. We have also been reminded of the fact that we are the light of the world, that love is the answer, that we must live in submission to God and are held accountable to God.
5. I want to end the series on the most positive note possible.
B. I want us to consider one of the most positive truths from Scripture.
1. They are seven small, simple words but they pack an unlimited amount of power.
2. These seven words are found in Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through Christ.”
C. Positive thinking may not be something that comes naturally to you.
1. The late comedian, Ronnie Shakes, said, “I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, and then I thought: What good would that do?”
2. Someone said, “A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.” (Herm Albright)
D. Anyone who follows the SU Football program knows exactly what the man meant by that quote.
1. Greg Robinson has been the SU Football coach for the past four years, and he is one of the most optimistic coaches I have ever seen.
2. The Orangemen have gone through the worst stretch in SU history – winning only one game in Robinson’s first year, and 10 games over the four years, with only three of the victories being against conference opponents.
3. Two weeks ago Robinson was fired, but he was allowed to coach the last two games.
4. This past Tuesday, he gave his final press conference as the coach of the Orange.
5. I really feel bad for Greg Robinson – he seems like a nice enough guy, and his heart is in the right place, and he’s certainly not a terrible coach, but he couldn’t turn the program around.
6. During his speech this past week, he continued to be positive.
7. Robinson pulled out a piece of paper, and started to read a synopsis of the children’s book “The Little Engine That Could.” How many of you remember that book?
8. Robinson said that it was a metaphor for the Orange football program during his tenure.
9. After a few minutes, he paused in his narration and asked a reporter in the attendance to recite the famous line the engine used to will itself up the mountain: “I think I can.”
10. “Well you know what?” Robinson responded. “I still think I can. I do.”
11. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he won’t get the chance to show whether he can or not.
12. But I really do admire his positive attitude and his optimism.
13. “I think I can” is the right attitude!
E. Winston Churchill, the great English statesman and Nobel prize-winning author, once acknowledged that he was an optimist, adding that it didn’t make much sense to be anything else.
1. He said, “There is, I believe, a great deal about which to be hopeful. Even if we must dig for it. Optimism – the genuine article, not the artificial kind sometimes pumped out at pep rallies – never comes without effort. And patience. And great faith.”
2. I believe, with all my heart, that with God’s help, “I can,” and “You can,” and that’s the genuine article, not some hyped-up positive thinking.
3. That’s the truth – truly transforming words from the Lord.
F. I want us to spend a few minutes looking at these seven, short, simple words.
1. Magicians perform amazing feats with just a word – “Abracadabra!”
2. Ali Baba in Arabian Nights opened the door to the cave with the words – “Open Sesame!”
3. Those of us who grew up with Captain Kangaroo remember his magic words – “Please and Thank You.”
4. These seven words are not magical nor make-believe, they are truly powerful because God is the one who made them and backs them.
5. These seven words will enable us to overcome any obstacle, conquer every challenge, fight off every foe, bear any burden, and shoulder any sacrifice.
6. I can do all things through Christ.
7. Let’s examine the sentence in three phrases.
G. The first part is “I CAN”
1. Those are the two most positive words that exist. Wouldn’t you agree?
2. We live in a world that tells us that we can’t.
3. We live in a world where Satan is trying to convince us that we can’t. Right?
a. He wants us to think that we can’t change and grow.
b. He wants us to think that we can’t reach the lost or minister to others.
c. He wants us to think that we can’t make it through our struggles and overcome our problems.
4. Unfortunately, sometimes we believe him.
5. Unfortunately, sometimes we develop the “I can’t/ We can’t” attitude.
6. And when we do, we are just giving into Satan, we are letting him have his way.
H. So how can we knock the “T” out of can’t?
1. I believe we can knock it out through faith and perseverance.
2. Ultimately, not faith in ourselves, but faith in God.
3. Perseverance is the ability to keep on going even when the going gets tough.
4. I think that many times we quit too soon.
5. In many cases if we had just continued we would have accomplished what we were trying to accomplish, but we quit too soon.
6. The truth is this: through perseverance and faith “I can”, “you can”, “we can.”
I. The second part of the statement is: “I can DO ALL THINGS”
1. There are two words in this part of the statement with which we are likely not comfortable.
2. The first is the word “DO”.
a. The word “do” is an important one, but one we often avoid.
b. Often we spend more time talking about doing, than time spent actually doing.
c. We might attend meetings, committees, and workshops to prepare to do something, but then we never get around to doing anything. Know what I mean?
d. In the end, its not the talk, but the walk that matters. Right?
e. James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
3. The other word that often makes us uncomfortable is the word “ALL”.
a. Perhaps we would be more comfortable if this statement were: “I can do some things” or “I can most things”.
b. But that word “ALL” is so inclusive. Right?
c. If you are like me, then you often fall prey to the “yes buts” and the “what abouts.”
d. There is this little voice of doubt that goes off in my mind.
e. That little voice entices us to “water down” God’s promises.
f. We must resist doing so. This verse says “I can do all things.”
J. Someone has called these words we have looked at thus far as the “monosyllables of madness.”
1. The reason they called that is because if you put a period at the end of this part of the statement, you would be stating the impossible.
2. The statement “I can do all things” is a false one. It is a maddening one.
3. I don’t believe that Paul was trying to say that we can do all things period.
4. I don’t think he means that if I just get on my bicycle today and start pedaling that I can win the Tour de France.
5. Or if I go to the YMCA down the street that I will be able to hop in the pool and out-swim Michael Phelps.
6. Or sit down today and begin writing a book that will out-sell J.K. Rowling’s books.
7. No, what Paul is talking about is that we can do all things that God wants us to be doing.
8. All things that pertain to God’s will for our spiritual lives.
K. In the fourth chapter of Philippians where this positive verse is found,
1. Paul has already made known a number of things that are possible with God’s help pertaining to his spiritual life, and the spiritual life of the Philippians.
2. He had already pointed out that they could get along with each other in Christ.
3. He had already pointed out that they could rejoice in the Lord always.
4. He had already pointed out that they could overcome fear through prayer.
5. And He had already pointed out that they could learn to be content regardless of the circumstances.
6. So the promise has to do with all things pertaining to our spiritual lives.
L. And, then it is only when you add the last part of the statement that it becomes true and possible.
1. The third part is: “I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST.”
2. This final part is truly the key.
3. In John 15:5, Jesus said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
4. Without Christ “I can’t”. With Christ I can.
5. Why not say it with me a few times and see how it feels: “I Can Do all things through Christ.”
M. But we might object: “But you don’t understand, my problems are really big and very complex.”
1. And that may be true, but let me ask you this question: “Is there a problem too big or complex for God?” I don’t think so!
2. Paul declared in Ephesians 3:20, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
N. But as Paul discovered from his own experience with the thorn in the flesh, sometimes God chooses not to remove the difficulties from our lives, but makes His power known through them.
1. “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
O. Is God’s grace sufficient for us? Do we believe and accept that?
1. Maybe you are living in a body that is not healthy or doesn’t work as it could and should – Is God’s grace sufficient? Can His power be made perfect through that weakness?
2. Maybe you are living in a family or a marriage that is not what it could or should be – Is God’s grace sufficient? Can His power be made perfect through that weakness?
3. What if you have lost your job, or you are really struggling to make ends meet? Is God’s grace sufficient? Can His power be made perfect through that weakness?
P. There is not a person among us who does not have some kind of limitation, or struggle or pain in their life.
1. The Scottish preacher Alexander McClaren used to say, “Be kind to everyone you meet, because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.”
2. The only struggle-free people you know, are the people you don’t know very well.
Q. Do we believe that we can do all things through Christ?
1. Will we all decide today to claim that statement and promise as our own?
2. Will all of us make the decision to believe that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength?
3. Will all of us decide to face all of our difficulties, and all of our deficiencies with the attitude that God will help us stand up under it or against it?
4. Will we make that decision and commitment today?
R. Tim Brown, professor of preaching at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan tells a story about one of his former students who was also named Tim.
1. The former student was a successful young man who called one day to tell the professor that he was sick and in the hospital.
2. When professor Tim visited him there, he discovered that Tim was sick with leukemia, a battle that he has since lost.
3. After a few moments by his side in the hospital, Tim, the former student, said to his professor: “I have learned that life is not like a VCR.”
4. “What do you mean?” Professor Tim asked.
5. “It’s not like a VCR, because you can’t fast-forward through the bad parts. But I have learned that Jesus Christ is in every frame, and right now that is just enough.”
S. How many times have we wished that life had a “fast-forward” button, or a “rewind” button, or an “edit, undo” button?
1. But that’s not how life is.
2. What we can rejoice in and count on is that Jesus Christ is with us in every frame, and in every moment, and that is just enough.
3. I can do all things through Christ.
T. I heard about a picture in a newspaper that had a caption “Strong Man.”
1. The picture showed a man who appeared to have super-human strength.
2. It appeared that the man was lifting a piano up to a second story apartment porch all by himself.
3. Upon a closer examination of the picture, you could see the faint outline of a thin steal cable attached to the piano.
4. What you couldn’t see in the picture was the crane that was lifting the piano by that cable.
5. The man below was simply guiding the piano in the right direction.
6. It is much the same way in our lives. What looks like great strength on our part is really just our dependence on our all powerful God – We can do all things through Christ, and only through Christ.
U. Phillip Brooks, a great American preacher of another day, said, “Do not pray for easy lives, pray to be stronger people; do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work may be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, the richness of the life that has come to you by the grace of God.”
V. We have a very high calling.
1. We are children of the King – loved, forgiven and saved by Him.
2. The God of the universe lives in us and His power can enable us to grow to maturity and completeness.
3. His power can help us endure whatever we must suffer.
4. His power can supply what we need to obey all his commands, and complete all that God has planned for us.
5. But if we try to walk in our own strength, we will fall and we will fail.
6. But if we walk in the Spirit then, we can, do all things, through Christ who strengthens us.
7. Let’s believe it and then let’s live it! Amen!
W. Invitation Song – “Would You Live For Jesus?”
1. Would you live for Jesus? His power can make you what you ought to be.
Resources:
“The Seven Most Powerful Words” by Dr. Roger Thomas
“I Can” by Joey Nelson
“Twelve Can Do’s for Life’s Can’t Do Attitudes” by Paul Fritz
