August 17, 2003
Title: Power Failure
Text: Mark 9:14-29, Mark 6:45-51, Matthew 14:23-33
Introduction
From the Ocala Star Banner: The largest power blackout in U.S. history rolled across a vast swath of the northern United States as well as southern Canada on Thursday, driving millions of people outdoors into stifling rush hour streets — then darkness. New Yorkers escaped silenced subways. Nuclear power plants in four states shut down.
The blackouts started shortly after 4 p.m. EDT, engulfing most of New York state and nearby parts of New England, and spreading west to Ohio and Michigan. In Toronto, Canada’s largest city, workers fled their buildings when the power went off. There also were widespread outages in Ottawa, the capital.
Outages ranged over an area with roughly 50 million people.
New Yorkers scrambled down endless stairways in skyscrapers where elevators stopped working, and some subway commuters were stuck for several hours underground. In the city that took the brunt of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, people filed into the streets with little fuss and looked for ways to get home.
‘‘I’m trying to keep calm,’’ said Aaron David, 27, who works at the United Nations. ‘‘But I was here for 9-11. This doesn’t happen every day.’’
Traffic lights were out throughout downtown Cleveland and other major cities, creating havoc at the beginning of rush hour. Cleveland officials said that without the power needed to pump water to 1.5 million people, water reserves were running low.
New York state lost 80 percent of its power, said Matthew Melewski, speaking for the New York Independent System Operator, which manages the state power grid. Both New York and New Jersey declared states of emergency.
As darkness fell, city dwellers turned to candles and flashlights as scattered parts of the electrical grid came back on. Marveled another man, ‘‘You can actually see the stars in New York City.’’
There were outages in several Vermont towns and in northern New Jersey, where Gov. James E. McGreevey mobilized 700 National Guardsman and ordered 300 extra state troopers on duty. In Connecticut, Metro-North Railroad service was knocked out. Lights flickered at state government buildings in Hartford.
Broadway shut down. Night baseball, too.
In San Diego, Bush said ‘‘slowly but surely we’re coping with this massive, national problem,’’ and added that he would order a review of ‘‘why the cascade was so significant.’’
Bush said he suspected that the nation’s electrical grid would need to be modernized.
In Albany, N.Y., several people were trapped in elevators in Empire State Plaza, but most had been freed by 5 p.m. People in New York City lined up 10 deep or more at pay phones, with cell phone service disrupted in some areas. Times Square went dark
In Cleveland, Olga Kropko, a University Hospitals labor and delivery nurse, said the hospital was using its backup generators and had limited power. ‘‘Everyone is very hot because the air conditioning is off,’’ she said. ‘‘Our laboring moms are suffering.’’
John Meehan, 56, walked down 37 stories in the BP Tower in downtown Cleveland, wearing his suit and carrying a briefcase. ‘‘It makes you wonder, was this terrorism or what?’’ he asked.
The FBI and Homeland Security Department both said the outages appeared to be a natural occurrence and not the result of terrorism.
Police in Mansfield, Ohio, spread into the streets to keep traffic flowing. ‘‘A lot of officers are out there trying to make sure nobody gets hurt, to try to cut down on the accidents,’’ said jail officer Randi Allen.
As for the cause, he said: ‘‘It was probably a natural occurrence which disrupted the power system up there and it apparently for reasons we don’t know cascaded down through New York state over into Connecticut, as far south as New Jersey and as far west as Ohio.’’
Nine nuclear power reactors — six in New York and one each in New Jersey, Ohio and Michigan — reported they were shut down because of the loss of offsite power, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in Bethesda, Md.
The blackout set off security precautions developed after the World Trade Center attack, with heavily armed teams of counterterror officers deploying at New York City landmarks and other sensitive locations.
Officials swiftly realized the outage was not an act of terror and then used teams to make sure no one took advantage of the blackout to strike at a terror target, officials said.
Flights at six airports — Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark, Cleveland, Toronto and Ottawa — were grounded, according to the U.S. Transportation Department.
I’ve never seen a power failure quite like that.
We lost power in an ice storm for a couple days when we lived in Anderson, IN. ,
And I’ve lost power when I was right in the middle of writing a sermon on the computer, causing me to lose everything I had typed.
Power failure is frustrating in some degrees,
In the more extreme cases, like the power failures this week, it can be catastrophic.
As I began to think about all that has transpired this week with the power failures
and as I prayed for those that were affected....
it seemed that the Lord was leading me to speaking about power failure in a SPIRITUAL sense.
Power failure can be serious business when the electric goes out...
And power failure in the spiritual sense is very serious indeed.
Because failure in our spiritual power can have eternal ramifications.
I want us to look at 3 scenarios where the disciples experienced power failure.
And perhaps, by looking at the disciples,
we can avoid the same power failures in our own lives.
Read Text: Mark 9:14-29, Mark 6:45-51, Matthew 14:23-33
Body
1. Power failure comes from Prayer Failure Mark 9:14-29
In this first example of power failure, we see the disciples are utterly powerless to cast out an evil spirit.
In Luke chapter 9, we see that Jesus had given the disciples power over evil spirits.
And they were fairly successful
But these this situation arose, and they were unable to help this
Jesus asks what the commotion is all about.
After the boy’s father told Him, Jesus said, "O unbelieving generation," Mark 9:19 (NIV)
I believe that this remark is directed to the disciples.
Jesus had been living with them...
teaching them...
Obviously the disciples should have picked up on the importance of prayer...
They should have seen how Jesus frequently
but perhaps they had gotten too busy with ministering to others...
maybe they felt that since they were with Jesus often, they didn’t need to pray.
But whatever the case, the disciples had been neglecting their prayer life.
And, as a result, they had a huge power failure.
And not only did this power failure affect their own spiritual lives...
but it obviously affected this man and the crowd that had gathered around them.
When the disciples got Jesus off by Himself, they asked Him why they had trouble.
Jesus told them candidly, "This kind can come out only by prayer" Mark 9:29 (NIV)
some versions say, "prayer & fasting"
He DIDN’T say, "I am the only one who can cast out this kind".
He DIDN’T say, "If only you had said the right words"
He said that their prayer failure was a direct result of their power failure.
So, let me ask you.
Do you ever feel like you have a power failure in your Christian life?
Do you ever feel like you struggle spiritually with different "demons"?
Do you ever feel powerless against temptation?
Do you ever feel like you just aren’t as successful in your spiritual life and you should be?
If so, perhaps your power failure is due to PRAYER failure.
Have you been spending time with the Lord in prayer EACH DAY?
Have you made it a point to pray whenever you face difficult situations in your life?
When you take the time and energy to pray, you will find that you WILL have power for living!
2. Power Failure comes from doubting Matthew 14:23-33
In this next scenario, we see that Peter is walking on the water...
he is quite the success!!
I’m sure the other disciples were quite proud...to see Peter’s faith in action.
But then, something terrible happened!
Peter started to sink into the waves.
He experienced a devastating power failure.
One minute he was riding high,
the next minute he was sinking like a rock.
How could Peter have crashed and burned so quickly?
It happened when Peter took his eyes off Jesus.
He began to notice how big the waves were.
He began to notice how strng the winds were.
And Peter sank so fast, he had to cry out to Jesus to be saved.
Scripture says Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" Matt 14:31 (NIV)
When Peter let doubt creep in to his life, he experienced power failure.
We might be quick to judge Peter...
How could he fail so quickly?
Especially with Jesus standing right there beside Him?
But don’t be so quick to judge.
We do the same thing.
One minute, we can be walking along fine...
but then, the next minute, we fall flat on our face.
We commit sin...
We yield to temptation...
We take our eyes off Jesus...
We doubt that God cares...
We doubt the He is able to help us...
We doubt that He is even there...
And we experience power failure.
We start to sink.
Some people succumb to their doubts...
they NEVER reach the point where they cry out for help.
But other people are like Peter, they immediately cry out to God for help.
Notice what happened when Peter cried out for help.
IMMEDIATELY Jesus reached out his hand and caught him Matt 14:31 (NIV)
Notice what Jesus DIDN’T do...
He DIDN’T say, "I’ll just let him struggle for awhile...
I’ll show him...
That will teach him to look away from Me
IMMEDIATELY Jesus reached out to save him.
And I assure you, when the time comes that you are in very real danger...
Jesus is NOT oblivious...
He does NOT just stand by watching as the situation develops...
He reaches out and saves us!
3. Power Failure comes from trying to do it all under our own power Mark Mark 6:45-51
In this scenario, the disciples had just spent some quality time with Jesus.
they had seen Him perform the incredible miracle of feeding the 5000.
What a boost to their faith.
That night, they were rowing across the lake.
The wind began to get fierce.
And they put their backs into it.
Some of these disciples were fishermen.
They knew about rowing...
they knew about storms...
they were strong from their work...
But now they were struggling.
In fact, they had struggled so much, that they were ready to give up.
They had expended all their energy fighting the storm.
And they experienced power failure.
Why? What happened?
They experienced power failure because they were struggling through the storm under their own power.
They had just seen Jesus do a miracle that day.
But when the storm came, that just slipped their mind.
They could have called out to Jesus any time,
but instead, they struggled on...
expending all their energy fighting through the storm on their own...
Sometimes we do the same thing.
Maybe we experience a beautiful worship service...
a time when God comes in a special way...
and He feeds us and we are full to overflowing...
but then evening comes...
a storm develops...
and we put our back into it...
struggling on under our own power...
without ever asking God to intervene.
And the more you struggle, the more weak you become...
and before long, you experience power failure.
Conclusion
So how can the Christian avoid power failure?
At first glance, it seems quite simple:
Pray
Believe
Look to Christ for our Strength.
But, just like this power failure that affected 8 states and canada...
things aren’t as simple as they seem...
one thing that they talked about in the power failure this week was the "cascade" effect.
In other words, when 1 power station gave out, it put more drain on the others, causing them to give out.
So they experienced "cascade failure"
The Christian can experience cascade failure as well.
When our prayer life fails...
well that affects our Scripture reading...
and when our Scripture reading fails...
that affects our spiritual wisdom and our ability to combat temptation...
and when our spiritual life becomes weakened, we don’t seem to care about spending time in God’s house.
which causes us to fail even more, spiritually speaking.
Before very long, there is a blackout.
and we are living in spiritual darkness.
And when that happens, we need to tgurn to the Light, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is able to get our spiritual power back on-line.
And we need to do the things to adequately maintain our spiritual power when we get it back online.
Maybe we need to upgrade our power grid.
And give it proper, on-going maintenance of prayer, faith, focus, Scriptural study, and Church attendance.
I was amazed at how devastating this recent power failure was.
it was catastrophic.
It may be months before we fully realize the full affects.
As I write this, they still aren’t sure what caused it.
Power failure in our Christian life is devastating as well.
It can be catastophic.
And the effects may be eternal.
Don’t allow power failure to happen in your Christian life.
Perhaps this power failure in the north east could have been prevented if proper modernization and maintenance had been done.
I encourage you to do the proper modernization and maintenance of your spiritual life.
You don’t have to wait for a power failure to occur.
Address any areas in your life that may be potentially damaging.
If you are in the midst of a spiritual power failure...I encourage you to turn to Christ.
He is the True Source of all power.
Let’s pray.
