Power in Reserve
By Pastor Jim May
It seems that there is never a day when we do not hear of someone who is having some problems. Just this week we have seen several of our own church family who have had some hard times. Two of the ladies have had to have surgery. I’m glad to say that both are on their way to recovery. The Wheeless family suffered the loss of a father. Some of you here right now are suffering with pain, or sickness, and all of us know not what tomorrow will hold.
But isn’t it good to know that, through it all, Jesus is still there. He’s still there to lift you up and to bring you through everything that you are facing and give you victory.
As I was reading this morning and asking the Lord what He would have me say to you this morning, I was led to the Book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 4. I think that God wants to encourage you today. It is not His will that we should be overcome by the cares of life. He wants us to know that no matter what happens, it all has a purpose.
God wants you to know that even in your weakest moments, you are valuable to Him and He still desires to use you for His kingdom and His glory.
2 Corinthians 4:6-7, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
Let us never forget that it is the same God who commanded the light to shine at the creation that gave us the light of the gospel and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. All through the Bible, “Light” is used as the emblem of knowledge, purity, and truth; and darkness is the emblem of ignorance, error, sin, and wretchedness.
God has been so good to those of us who know Him. By His mercy and grace, and through His love, he reached down to each of us, called us forth out of the darkness and brought us into His marvelous light.
He removed the darkness of ignorance, and poured a flood of light and truth into our hearts and minds
The natural mind is, by nature, ignorant and dark. The mind of a sinful man is just as dark and barren as Genesis described the earth in the beginning.
Genesis 1:2-4, "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
In the mind of sinful man there is deep ignorance of God. We did know of His Law, and His requirements. Because we were living in the darkness of sin, we could only farther from God and deeper into that darkness. Our road was going ever deeper into sin.
But God searched us out and chose to send His light into our minds. He helped us to see things as they really are.
That’s why we have a different point of view about everything, compared to people of the world. We see everything differently. The worldly man doesn’t see anything beautiful about going to church and serving the Lord. They don’t see the beauty of our Lord and Savior. They don’t understand what the gospel is all about. They don’t see any value in sitting for an hour and listening to the Word of God. They don’t place any confidence in the promises that God has given to us. And they certainly don’t see any purpose in converting to Christianity, because they living in darkness and are spiritually blinded.
But thank God that He has helped us to see the truth. We understand more about what’s important and we can set our priorities on things that are eternal. We can see the end of all things. We can know the promises of God, and we understand that we can put our trust in God to bring us home to Heaven when this life is over.
Why did God illuminate our minds? God allowed the light to shine upon us so that we might see His Glory. We can see the glory of God when we look upon Jesus, God’s only Son. When we look upon the Redeemer we can see the glory of God in Him because Jesus reflects “the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person.”
God has turned on the light inside of us and now we have the treasure of the gospel on the inside. The “treasure” that God has put inside you and me is so valuable that no price can be placed upon it. How much is a soul worth? How much is the message of salvation worth? It cost everything that Heaven had to offer, and yet the gospel message is distributed inside of you and I. Inside of you right now is the most valuable treasure in the universe. It is the message that Jesus saves and will give eternal life to anyone who will believe upon Him. All the money in the world can’t buy this treasure, but it is freely given to you and I so that we may share it with the whole world.
If you have diamonds, gold and valuable documents, where would you store them? Would you find a cardboard shoebox and then carry that shoebox wherever you went? Would you find a burlap sack and then hang it on a tree by the side of the road? Of course not! We would want to find the strongest bank vault in town and use their safe deposit boxes where thieves and robbers would have a hard time stealing it.
But God chose to put His most valuable treasure inside you and I. We are the depository of the precious gospel and we are no more than an earthen vessels, like a piece of weak pottery. We are weak and feeble with bodies that are constantly decaying, growing old and dying. We are as fragile as thin glass, and liable to having accidents that cause us to be broken or shattered. In addition to being weak and fragile, we are completely undeserving and unworthy, and yet God gives us a priceless treasure to hold.
The great power of God is stored inside of each of us. We have a storehouse of power that, for the large part, still remains untapped and unused. There is enough stored power reserves inside each one of us to do might works for the Kingdom of God. What kind of power is there? It is the power of God, through the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and the Blood of the Lamb to heal the sick, raisethe dead, and cast out devils. We have the power to bear persecution and trials, and the power to carry the gospel around the world. And we have the power to do all of these things, in the midst of danger, and in spite of all the opposition which people could make. And the greatest power that we have on the inside of each of us is the power to convert the heart of a sinner, to humble those that are filled with pride, and to lead those who feel such guilt and shame to the knowledge of God, and the hope of Heaven.
None of us can do those things within ourselves. So how is it accomplished? It goes way beyond human strength, and is only accomplished by the power of God that is each of us. God chose weak and feeble vessels so that the world may know that everything we accomplish not done by human power but by His own.
No matter how talented the Christian is; and no matter how much zeal he may have for God, it is not the Christian who converts the souls of men. He or she is only the messenger. The work of converting a lost soul is done by the convicting and saving power of the Holy Ghost and the blood of Jesus Christ that is manifest through the life of that Christian.
Even at best those who serve the Lord are frail, imperfect, and sinful. When our imperfections are considered; an our frequent errors, and our frequent moral failures; when it is remembered how far we live from what we ought to do, and how few of us live like Jesus, it is a miracle that God blesses our labor as He does. And what is truly amazing is not that we don’t see as many people saved because of our witnessing as we do, but that we ever see anyone saved converted at all through our witnessing.
God often uses the most feeble, uneducated, and weakest of his servants to accomplish the greatest works for His kingdom. It is not great talents, or high levels of education, or outstanding eloquence, that is always the most successful. The world may judge the works of these “high profile” people as being successful but God judges according to a different scale and He often considers their ministry as entirely barren.
On the other hand, God will often take some humble and obscure Christian and give them great success. He will give them great results at revivals they preach where souls are saved but we never hear about it. People will be blessed and will grow in the grace of God wherever they minister, but nobody shouts it from the housetop.
You won’t see the “ordinary” Christian on the TV, being interviewed by the likes of Opray Winfrey or Larry King Live, but more souls are won to the Kingdom of God by these humble, common Christians, than all of the Mega-churches combined. God will use our talents, but it is the man of faith, and prayer, and self-denial, that is used the most.
Never forget that God will not share His glory, and when we begin to lift up the man or woman and to praise them for their good works, then we steal the glory from God. God gets more glory out of the obscure church, on the backside of the tracks, where people are being blessed and healed and giving God the praise, than He does in all the programs of man that lift up a preacher or a church leader.
God gets just as much glory when you witness to someone on the job, and maybe even more, than when a man stands and is praised for doing mighty works and being a successful preacher.
2 Corinthians 4:8-10, "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body."
It does not matter that we ever surrounded by trials, or placed in the midst of them so that they pressed upon us like we are if we are in a crowd of people. It may seem at times like those trials are trying their best to knock us down or stop us from moving on in God. It sometimes feels like they are using us a sparring partner in a boxing ring or that they are trying hem us in while we are running this race of life, trying to keep us from winning or reaching the finish line. But they can’t stop us. That power on the inside of us delivers us from the trials we face.
1 Corinthians 10:13, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
Paul says that though he was close pressed by persecutions and trials, yet he was not so hemmed in that he could not move on. His trials could not stop him from serving the Lord. He still had a reserve of power on the inside and that power of God permitted him to move on. His energy and desire to serve the Lord could not be stopped. The fire in his heart to serve God could not be put out and God always made a way for him to keep on, keeping on.
Have you ever felt perplexed? Being perplexed means that we feel like we are without resource; to know what to do, or not to do; to hesitate; to be in doubt and anxiety, as a traveler who doesn’t know the way, or who has lost his means of transportation. I often find myself in circumstances that are embarrassing to someone who is supposed to be the leader of the flock. I often don’t know what to do, or what course to take. A lot of time we find ourselves surrounded by people who don’t understand, who can’t see what we see, or who don’t have the vision that we have, and if we aren’t careful, we will begin to listen too much to what they have to say. That’s what I call “perplexed”.
But when we don’t know what to do; when all of our resources seem to fail, somehow Jesus always brings the answer and we are saved from absolute despair.
David said in Psalms 37:25, "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."
God’s people always face some kind of persecution. But God always produces a way to save them from the hands of their enemies. And though some are persecuted to the point of dying and God has not saved them from their persecutors, He still doesn’t leave them alone.
Proverbs 18:24, "… there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."
Sometimes those trials, and the actions of those who try to persecute you make you feel as though you have been thrown down, kind of like a wrestler being thrown down and pinned to the mat by an opponent. Have you ever felt like the weight of the whole world was on your shoulders?
Yes, we all feel like we’ve been thrown down sometimes, but we are never destroyed. The devil can oppress you but he can’t kill you without God’s permission. God allowed Satan to oppress Job, to cast him down, to stomp on him, but Satan couldn’t kill Job no matter how much he wanted to.
Like Job, you will rise again to fight another day. Your strength will recover and you will be ready for the next battle when it comes. God always makes a way for you to win!
2 Corinthians 4:17-18, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
What effect does all of the trials and persecutions, when they come, have upon the Child of God? They serve only to produce eternal glory in us, glory that we then give to God for what He has done in us.
(1)Trials tend to wean us from the world; we learn to depend upon God more and more
(2)They tend to help us purify our heart, by helping us to break away from the sin that is displeasing to God
(3)They help us to look to God for consolation and support
(4)They help us to focus on the glories of the heavenly world, and help us to desire to be there and to seek heaven as our home
(5)They remind us that God has promised to reward his people with eternal life in heaven as the result of their bearing trials in this life.
Afflictions, suffering and persecution, no matter how long in this life they may last, will last a moment compared to the eternity ahead.
James 4:14, "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."
No matter what you are facing right now; or what you have faced in the past; or what you may face tomorrow, you have Power in Reserve to overcome it all. If Jesus lives within your heart, you have all the power you will ever need to go all the way to Heaven.
This life may be filled with trials, tests and all sorts of troubles, but you have the Power in Reserve to come through every one of them with the victory of God still reigning in your soul and the glory that waits for you on the other side is worth anything you have to put up with now.
Do you have that Power in you right now? Are you saved by the blood of Jesus Christ? Come to Him today and be filled with the power of God. Jesus is calling for you, will you come to Him?
