You want to talk about power? In August of 1883, a volcano erupted on the Island of Krakatoa. The initial blast sent a cloud of gas and debris 15 miles into the atmosphere. On the morning of August 27th, four tremendous explosions were heard 3,000 miles away. That would be like us hearing Mount St. Helens exploding all the way over here in Canton/Beaverdam.
The force of Krakatoa’s explosions equaled 200 megatons of TNT. To give you an idea of how powerful that is, the bomb that devastated Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II had a force of 20 kilotons. The explosions at Krakatoa were nearly 10,000 times more powerful than the atomic bombs that we dropped on Japan.
The pyro clast … or molten lava … flowed over 25 miles at a speed of 62 miles per hour. Over 36,000 people died. The ash from the explosion covered the earth and lowered the earth’s temperature by 1.2 degrees for the next five years.
While Krakatoa’s eruption is justifiably classified as one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in modern times, believe it or not, it is not one of the most powerful. That “honor” belongs to Mount Tambora in Indonesia … which erupted on April 10th of 1815. The ash from that explosion covered the earth and caused global temperatures to drop five degrees. Even in the United States, the year of 1816 was known as “the year without a summer.” Crops failed worldwide. And a weird, unexpected outcome of that eruption was the invention of the … bicycle! That’s right … the bicycle! Because of the crop failures, horses became too expensive to feed.
You want to talk power? Let’s talk tsunamis. The eruption of Krakatoa set off shock waves and an earthquake that created a tsunami … get this … 120 feet tall! That’s 12 stories high! Six (12) times higher than this sanctuary.
You might remember the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011. We saw the devastation as a 30-foot wave crashed into Japan. Over 15,000 people were killed. You may not remember the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. That one killed 230,000 people.
And let’s talk about earthquakes while we’re at it, since earthquakes and tsunamis go hand in hand. You can’t have a tsunami without an earthquake. The force of the earthquake that created the Japanese tsunami in 2011 moved the entire island of Honshu 8 feet to the east. Wow! Think about that for a minute. The main island of Japan moved 8 feet to the left. It shifted the earth’s axis 4 to 10 inches. Did you hear that? The force of that earthquake shifted the earth’s axis 4 to 10 inches! Now that’s power, amen? It increased the rotational speed of the earth by 18 milliseconds … which changed the length of the day as well.
You want to talk power? Anyone here felt the fury and power of a hurricane, amen? Andrew reached speeds of 190 miles per hour … Camille reached speeds of 200 miles per hour. The last hurricane that I went through was Hurricane Irma. It was a category 5 hurricane when it hit Cuba with sustained winds of 165 miles per hour. It was a category 4 when it hit Cudjoe Key with sustained winds of 130 miles per hour. And it was a cat 3 with sustained winds of 115 miles per hour when it literally passed over my head. 134 people died … 92 in the contiguous United States. The strongest hurricane gust was recorded at Paso Real de San Diego, Cuba … at 211.7 miles per hour.
You want to talk about power? Let’s talk briefly about … tornadoes! The most powerful tornado in American history was the “Tri-State Tornado” that touched down on March 18, 1925. It tore a path of destruction 219 miles long through the states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. It holds the record for the longest duration … 3.5 hours … and the fastest forward speed … 73 miles per hour. It is considered to be the deadliest tornado in American history … killing 695 people and it is the third costliest since we’ve begun tracking and recording tornadoes.
The deadliest tornado on record is the Daulatpur-Saturia tornado that touched down in Bangladesh on April 26, 1989. It carved a path one mile wide and 10 miles long and killed 1,300 people.
The title of “most extensive tornado outbreak” once again belongs to the United States. In 1974, 148 tornados touched ground in a period of 18 hours. Most of them were F4 and F5 category tornadoes. F4 tornadoes have wind speeds between 165 and 200 miles per hour. And F5 tornadoes has speeds over 200 miles per hour. During the outbreak there were a minimum of 16 tornadoes on the ground at the same time. Over 300 people were killed during the 1974 tornado outbreak. This record has since been broken by the 2011 “Super Tornado Outbreak” … which resulted in 360 tornadoes touching down and killing 324 people.
The highest wind speed on record came from a gust of wind during Tropical Storm Olivia as it passed by Barrow Island, Australia, on April 10, 1996 … 254 miles per hour! Prior to that, the fastest wind speed in history was recorded, oddly enough, not during a hurricane or a tornado but the winds blowing past the summit of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire … 231 miles per hour. It may have been higher, but the Air Force reported that the wind had broken off the anemometer and blew it away.
You want to talk about power? Volcanoes … hurricanes … tsunamis … earthquakes … tornadoes … These are all things that happen here … on our planet but what about “out there?” What about our closest “star” … the sun … hummm? The sun is 330,000 times as massive as our planet. A million earths could fit inside it. It takes a beam of light just 8 minutes to travel the 93 million miles from the sun to our little church here … and it arrives here in Canton/Beaverdam right on schedule and in the exact proportion needed to sustain life on our planet.
The temperature at the sun’s surface is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. And scientists and physicists estimate that the sun’s temperature is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit at its core. Basically, the sun is a gaseous ball of continuously occurring nuclear explosions radiating out uniformly in all directions. Every second the sun produces the same energy as about 1 trillion … ONE TRILLION … megaton bombs! Every second our sun produces enough energy to power human civilization for 500,000 years. Now, that’s “solar power,” amen? Imagine if we could collect and use every second of it? Don’t worry though … the sun has enough nuclear fuel to burn another 5 billion years.
And yet … as impressive as all that sounds … and it is impressive … our sun is only one medium-sized star in a universe filled with trillions upon trillions of stars. Astronomers estimate that there are between 100-400 billion stars in our galaxy alone … and we have no idea how many galaxies there are in the universe. Think of all the energy radiating from all those stars and ask yourself: Where did all this energy come from? What source of power could so animate the universe? Who wired the cosmos with enough voltage to keep it glowing and burning and spinning and functioning to the limits of human observation and imagination … and for a seemingly endless amount of time?
Now [pause] … you want to talk about REAL power? You want to talk about power beyond our ability to imagine it? Beyond our ability to measure it or record it? If you want to talk about “real” power, you need to talk about the Source … with a capital “S” … of all power … the omnipotent … all powerful … all mighty … El Shaddai! “There is none like You, O Lord,” says the Prophet Jeremiah. “You are great, and Your name is great in might. Who would not fear You, O King of the Nations? For that is Your due; among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is no one like You” (Jeremiah 10:6-7).
Let me ask you …
What is a hurricane to God? A mere spring shower …
What is a volcano to God? A pimple … nothing more …
What is an earthquake to God? A mere itch …
What is a tsunami to God? Tiny ripples in a bathtub …
What is a tornado to God? Just a puff of air …
What is the sun to God? A candle on a birthday cake [pretend to blow out]
“When Jesus got into the boat,” Matthew wrote, “His disciples followed Him. A windstorm arose on the sea … so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves.” But Jesus was doing what? Jesus was catching a nap … a few Z’s at the front of the boat. In a panic, the disciples went to Him and woke Him up, shouting: “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” Jesus asked them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith? Then He got up and rebuked the winds and sea; and there was dead calm. The disciples were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’” (Matthew 14:23-33).
If YOU believe that God is El Shaddai … All Powerful and All Mighty … then let me ask you this, O Ye of little faith: How much do YOU trust Him?
If you were to ask any Jew in Jeremiah’s day if they believed that God was all powerful and all mighty, they wouldn’t hesitate to answer in the affirmative. They knew the Creation story in Genesis. They grew up celebrating Passover and Succoth and Hanukah. They knew the story of God’s deliverance from Egypt by heart … the story of how God made a old woman named Sarai give birth to a nation … provided food and water for His people when they wandered in the wilderness … protected them … conquered their enemies … made great kings and toppled powerful kings and empires like dominoes … caused the sun to stand still in the sky … and stopped the rain for three years.
“Yes,” they’d tell you, “no doubt about it. God is all powerful … God is mighty beyond our imagination.” “If that is true,” God asks, “Then why are you putting your trust in idols. They are both stupid and foolish. The instruction given by idols is no better than wood! They are the work of artisans and craftsmen. Why would you put your faith and your trust in them and not in me … El Shaddai … you omnipotent Lord God who has the power to shake the earth with His voice?”
“Omni” means “all.” “Potent” means “power.” Put them together and you are saying that God has all power … that God is “All-mighty.” God’s omnipotence refers to the totality of God’s infinite strength, power, energy, and authority.
Stephen Charnock, one of the greatest writers on the attributes of God, described God’s omnipotence as “that ability and strength whereby [God] can bring to pass whatsoever He pleases, whatsoever His infinite wisdom can direct, and whatsoever the purity of His will can resolve. His power,” Charnock proclaims, “shines in everything, and is beyond everything.”
From the first verses of Genesis … when God created the heavens and the earth … to the last pages of Revelation … where we read about the throne of God in the New Jerusalem … we read and hear and learn about God’s omnipotent and sovereign power. His omnipotence energizes all His other attributes. “With God nothing is impossible.” Say it with me … “With God nothing is impossible.”
Do you believe that? Sure … you don’t believe in idols, right? Well, let me ask you this? If you believe that with God nothing is impossible then why are you trying to run your life alone, hum? Under your own very, very limited power.
When Dr. A.B. Simpson, founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, became gravely ill at the age of 35 he was so sick that he said that he could almost see himself falling into the grave. His ministry lost its steam and he endured a period of deep discouragement. While lingering after a camp meeting, he heard the words of an African-American spiritual: “Nothing is too hard for Jesus … no man can work like Him.” No “man” can work like Him!
He said that it was as if an arrow from God pierced his heart. He realized that he had been trying to do God’s work on the strength of his own passions and personality. He turned his attention back towards God and began contemplating on the superlative power of God. He realized that he needed to let the Lord use him as a channel, supplying the necessary power through the indwelling Holy Spirit. It changed his life and his ministry … and it could change your life and ministry too … or get you started on a ministry, amen?
God is not only more powerful than you or anything in the physical world, He is also far more powerful than anything in the spiritual realm as well. God is more powerful than Satan! Not just a little more powerful but infinitely so. Satan is a created being … He didn’t make himself or appear out of nothing. Like us, the angels have free will and Satan chose to rebel against God because of his pride and ambition. While Satan is powerful compared to us, he’s not more powerful than God. He’s not even slightly less powerful than God … like God’s a 10 on the power scale and Satan is a 9. When it comes to power, Satan isn’t even close. In fact, Satan is subject to God. He cannot do anything apart from what God will allow him to do. Check out the beginning of the Book of Job. Satan has to get God’s permission and he has to stay within the perimeters of God’s conditions.
Now, we may not … let me rephrase that … we will never understand why God allows certain things to happen … but what we do need to understand is that we have the power of God dwelling in us … so we do not need to fear Satan or our circumstances or any of the things that happen in life … am I right?
Jess Bridges, author of “Trusting God, Even When Life Hurts,” says that what people have done in their struggle to understand the “whys” of suffering is to take God off of His throne. He refers to one Christian writer who spoke of her pain as being “utterly frustrating to God” and she gave thanks to God for being her “devoted, caring, frustrated heavenly Father.”
Now, of course, when circumstances cause us misery, God cares … no doubt about it. He cares very deeply for us. But to say that God’s frustrated about things that happen is unbiblical. To say that God is frustrated is to say that God, like us, is powerless to help us or change or fix a problem … and power is not something that El Shaddai lacks. I don’t think I can serve a God who gets frustrated by what’s happening on earth … or in the universe, for that matter … can you? I would rather come to a place, as Jess Bridges says, where I say: “I cannot fully understand why this or that is happening but I trust my omnipotent God who does understand why.”
Let me ask you this: What would happen if, for a single moment, El Shaddai withdrew His hand from the universe? It would fly apart. It would collapse like a building imploding. The Bible says that the God who created the universe is the One in whom all things consist and are being held together (Colossians 1:17). He is the God who preserves the world in which we live. “He” is power … He “is” power … He is “power.”
The Bible leaves no doubt … God is never frustrated … period! As Jess Bridges points out: “All expressions of nature, all occurrences of weather, whether it be a devastating tornado or a gentle rain on a Spring day, are acts of God. The Bible teaches that God controls all the forces of nature … both destructive and productive … on a continuous, moment-by-moment basis. We must allow the Bible to say what it says,” Bridges concludes, “not what we think it ought to say.”
But I’m afraid that that’s our tendency, isn’t it? To make the Bible say what we think it ought to say? I love the way theologian Albert Mohler put it. “The Bible claims that God is both omnipotent and All-Loving,” says Mohler. “The fact that these twin truths sometimes lead us into intellectual difficulty is no excuse for surrendering the Bible’s assertion of unlimited divine power and authority. The problem,” says Mohler, “lies with our limited understanding, not with any limit on God’s power.”
It’s a matter of faith … of trust. With the massive, powerful, mighty Babylonian Army bearing down on them, Jeremiah asks the people not to trust in idols … not to trust what their eyes see and their fear tells them … not to take matters into their own hands … but to put their trust in El Shaddai … God Almighty … God All-Powerful. The Lord … the one True God … the Living and Everlasting God … whose wrath shakes the earth and all the nations. Powerful nations like Babylon … cannot endure His indignation (Jeremiah 10:10).
The 19th century English preacher Daniel Jones said that the value of religion “depends on the truth and sufficiency of its idea of God.” Not only the truth of it but on the sufficiency of it. If we start with a little god, guess what? We shall have a piddly faith and a piddly religion, amen? That make sense? One that is utterly and entirely unable to meet our idea of God that provides the basis or ground plans for our religion and our beliefs. If our ground plan is cramped and small and meager, the building we erect upon it is bound to be small and cramped and meager too. You cannot build a bigger building than what your base or foundation can safely support, amen?
A great religion … a great faith … demands a great God not as its goal but as its starting point. If we are to believe that our faith, our religion, will win its way to the ends of the earth then we must start with a great idea of God … and that, perhaps, is what we need for a revival of our faith and courage … an enlarged concept of God, amen?
Sometimes I think we place too much emphasis on the gentleness of God when we need a bracing vision of God’s majesty and power just as much. Perhaps we tend to focus too much on the meek and mild Jesus and not enough on the glorified Christ with His sword on His side, marching on boldly because of truth and righteousness … mighty to save. The Lord of Heaven and earth on His throne … His power radiating out of Him like the rays of the Sun. Such a vision … such an understanding of Jesus … is our antidote for our doubts, our fear, our despair, Amen?
At the end of his gospel, the Apostle Mark wrote: “So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to the Disciples, was taken up to Heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.” And the Disciples went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere (Mark 16:19-20).
I want to leave you with that thought and that image in your mind … the Lord on His throne … His servants where? Out in the field. The Lord radiant with power. The Disciples flinging themselves against the strongholds of the heathen with courage. Why? Because they trust the power of El Shaddai and they have a true vision of their king … a true vision of OUR king that can produce the same awe and trust in us today … amen?
Let us pray …
