Who don't know Christ get excited about, I mean, you can
get excited about a football game and that's going to go
away. You know, basketball, golf, I
mean, whatever, fill in the blank.
I mean, all of those things are going to go away.
You get excited about about about Christ and about what he's
done for us. And you get excited about the
fact that we have a home in heaven someday.
And those are things that are really get excited that that'll
really get you excited. And man, that's something that
we see see that the problem with with people who are living for
the things of this world is that they're enjoying the best that
they're ever going to have. Now the best is yet to come for
us. And I'm looking forward to that.
And we have a wonderful life living for Christ and we get all
this and then heaven when it's all done and and man, what a
wonderful thing that is. Second Kings chapter 6.
This is a story that maybe you've heard, maybe you haven't
before, but this comes from the story of from the life of
Elijah. And obviously Elijah was the
prophet and his young protege. If you will, one of the sons of
the prophet, I guess you could call Elijah was there when
Elijah was taken up into heaven by the, by the whirlwind and the
and the flaming chariot of fire. And he watched him go into
heaven. And as he went up into heaven,
the mantle fell off of Elijah and Elijah picked it up and he
said, where is the Lord God of Elijah?
And he took that mantle and he smote the waters of the Jordan.
The Bible says they they parted and he walked across on dry
ground and he had asked for a double portion of Elijah's
spirit. And do you know that God allowed
Elijah to perform exactly double the number of miracles that
Elijah performed? Including one that is very
interesting. Elijah died and he was buried in
a sepulcher like they always did.
And and this is a story that that most it's only a couple
verses. Long in the Bible, a lot of
people have probably skipped over and not even known that was
in there. But a group of men were burying
one of their friends who had died.
And along came another group of people that they were afraid of.
They didn't know if they were going to be robbed or whatever
was going to happen. And so they just they just
looked to the closest grave they can find.
They didn't know it was Elisha's, but they rolled that
little stone. Back, and they threw this dead
guy in Elisha's tomb, and as soon as he hit the bones of
Elisha, he came back to life. It's an amazing thing.
Could you imagine? You look back down in there to
go get your dead friend out and he's standing there looking at
you? Could you imagine what that must
have been like? But God used Elisha in a great
way. And here we have a story in
Second Kings chapter 6 and verse #1 The Bible says, And the sons
of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now the place
where we dwell with thee is too straight for us.
These sons of the prophets, they would have been college
students, if you will, sons of the prophets and and the
dormitory that they were living in was too small.
That's what they were saying. This, this, this place where we
dwell with thee is too straight. It's too small for us.
Let us go, we pray thee unto Jordan, and take thence every
man a beam, and let us make a place there where we may dwell.
And he answered, Go ye. And once said, Be content, I
pray thee, and go with thy. Servants.
And he answered, I will go. So we went with them, and when
they came to Jordan they cut down wood.
But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the
water. And he cried and said, a last
master, for it was borrowed. And the man of God said, Where
fell it? And he showed him the place, And
he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither, And the iron did
swim. Therefore, said he, Take it up
to thee. And he put out his hand and took
it. What an amazing story.
These, these, these young sons of the prophets, these young
college students, they're, they're chopping down trees.
They're going to build their own dormitory.
Could you imagine if they had to do that today?
Most kids wouldn't stay in college, all right?
They just, they want everything handed to them on a platter, it
seems like, but I digress. Anyway, they're, they're,
they're chopping these trees down.
And next thing you know that the head.
Flies off of that axe and it. Blew.
Right into the water. I mean, it's one of those
feelings. I was when I was in high school,
we took a trip to the to the boundary waters all the way up
in northern Minnesota, right between the United States and
Canada and one day when we were out there we.
Actually stayed in campsites. And the campsites were so remote
that we actually had to pack everything we had into canoes
and take our canoes to these campsites.
And I think we were the canoe, the canoe trip was probably
about 3 hours. That's how remote this was where
we were staying. But one day while we were out
there, we were going to be there, I think for a week or so,
camping out in these, right, right along the edge of the, the
border between the United States and Canada.
They decided, all right, everybody in the canoes.
I think we had about 40 canoes and we're going to go and we're
going to, we're going to take a trip into Canada, let you step
off on the ground and get back in the boat.
That way you can say you've been to Canada.
This is back in the day of this is back in the late 90s.
So, you know, no, no digital cameras, none of that kind of
stuff. And so I mean, I was, I love it.
I always have loved eagles. I've loved that, you know, that
type of hiking and camping and all of that kind of stuff.
And so we get out there and. We're we're going in the canoe
and this eagle, I see this eagle coming.
And he comes down, he swept right in front of us, grabs a
fish right out of the water in front of us, said, man, that was
really cool. So he's, he's circling on.
There was a couple of them that were circling around us.
And I said, you know what I mean?
If he, if I mean the river was only so wide, I said, if they do
that again, I'm going to get a picture.
So sure enough, this eagle, he starts coming down.
I picked up my camera to take a picture and somehow the battery
latch had come undone. I picked it up.
Bloop, bloop. There went both my batteries, no
camera, and the thing swooped down right in front of us again
and took a fish and, and and flew off.
But I didn't, I couldn't take any pictures for the rest of the
trip. I watched those batteries float
to the bottom, but it was so deep there was, I mean,
disappeared. There's nothing I can do about
it. It's a helpless feeling.
You know, I can imagine how this young man must have felt.
The Jordan River is deep in places and he's he's just
swinging that axe and next thing you know, the head flies off
that axe and bloop right into the water and it sinks.
But he had a different problem. He was a college student and he
didn't have a lot of money. Proof of the fact that he had
borrowed that axe. And doesn't it always go that
way? If he had owned it, the axe
probably would have been perfectly fine.
But because he borrowed it, the head flew off of the axe and and
it and it sunk into the water. And I can imagine the look on
that young man's face when he finally realized what had
happened. He was.
He was.
Probably in a panic because that axe was borrowed.
He was a college student. I'm sure he didn't have a lot of
money. I've been there.
Most of you have been there as well.
In fact, I remember when I was in college, actually I just
graduated college. I was, I was dating my wife at
the time and I was working on staff.
But the way that they had worked everything out, I was not
getting much money. I lived there in the dormitory.
I had my own room in the dorm there and, and had access to the
cafeteria and all this stuff. So they didn't pay me anything,
you know. So I went down to Mexico because
I had to do a, a missions trip. I went down with our teenagers,
with the, with the teenagers from the school there.
And I spent a week with them. And then I went over and spent
three weeks with the missionary, with one of the missionaries
that was there in Mexico City. And I was in the middle.
I was that was back when I was doing a lot of running.
I was training for marathons and I was actually training for an
ultra marathon at that point. I didn't eat hardly anything.
I mean I was nothing but a but a stick with a little muscle on it
is is what I was. And so the missionary, the whole
time, he just kept commenting, you know, and, and the, the, the
way it was, it was actually something that I had to do for
my missions degree. I got my degree in.
Missions and one of the things that you had to do was go spend
a month with a missionary on a mission field somewhere and do
all the work with him and everything else.
And I think depending on where you went, it was how much they
said that you had to pay them because, you know, they're
taking care of you for that for that month.
Well, I said, all right, well, number one, it's only three
weeks because I've already spent a week away.
From them number two I'm not eating anything and the
missionary kept commenting on it over and over I've never seen a
college student not eat anything like you I've never seen anybody
not have seconds and I was in my mind I'm like all right keep
keep track of that because I don't have any money to pay you
for what you you know and so I'm heading.
Back and getting, I think we were getting.
To leave. And he said, oh, did they tell
you that, that you owe us $200 for the food and all that stuff?
He might as well said $2,000,000 because I didn't have $2.00 to
my name, let alone 200. And so the whole truck back, I'm
thinking, how am I going to, how am I going to pay him $200, You
know, for this thing? I know what it's like to be a
college student and not have any money.
And that's exactly what happened with this young man here.
And, you know, as I got to reading the story, I think
something became very clear to me.
And I think it fits very well here.
Why does, why does God give us stories like this in the Bible?
It's not just so we can have a little laugh about it and, and,
you know, have a have a little fun at his expense and then go
on. I think every story that we see
in the Bible is a representation of something that we can take
away from it. And, and I think what what the
axe head in this story represents is actually the power
of God, because the power of God is absolutely essential to
accomplishing any task that is worthwhile.
You know that we throw that term around a lot, don't we?
The power of God. I want the power of God in my
life. If I would ask you to raise your
hand, I bet you that at least everybody in this room has said
that at least one time. I want to have God's power.
I want God's power to, to be on my life.
I want him to be able to use me. But what does that even mean?
How do we, how do we get it? Where do we begin with that?
And just like this young preacher in the story, if we
don't have the accent, if we don't have the power of God, we
are going to be very ineffective in serving the Lord.
We have special services. We need the power of God.
We go out and we knock on doors. We need the power of God.
We we have people that need to hear the gospel where we work.
We need the power of God. We have what?
We're trying to reach a. Community with the gospel.
We need the power of God. We're trying to raise another
generation of young people who will go on and not only be as
strong as the parents in this generation, but be even stronger
for the Lord and carry on the the work that this church is is
is going forward with 20-30 forty, 50 years from now.
We need the. Power of God to make that
happen. There are several things that I
want you to notice this morning concerning the power of God in
our lives. If you keep your finger there or
put a bookmark maybe in Second Kings chapter 6, we're going to
come back and forth, but we're going to jump around to a few
different passages this morning. But I want to talk to you about
this morning, simply about the power of God, the power of God.
Let's pray and then we'll look at a couple things here this
morning. Father, again, we thank you for
your goodness. Thank you for the opportunity we
have to be here this morning. Thank you for bringing all of
these families and all of the the people that you have here
this morning. Obviously you have a purpose and
a plan for that. God, you knew exactly who was
going to need this message way more than I did.
And God, I pray that you'd use it in our hearts.
I pray that you'd accomplish what you're what you've set out
to accomplish this morning through this message.
May you help me. May you help us.
God, I pray that you bless them. Bless the time together around
your word this morning. Thank you again for all you do
for us in Jesus name, Amen. First thing I want you to
understand, this is vital to what we're talking about this
morning is the power of God for salvation.
We're talking about the power of God.
Turn over to John chapter 1, John chapter one.
The first thing that we have to understand is that we need the
power of God for salvation. The Bible says this in John
chapter 1 and verse #12 John chapter 1 verse #12.
But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
It takes the power of God for us to even have salvation.
There is no one else that could give us salvation besides God
and His ability to give. It to us, right?
There's a lot of other people who have come up with a lot of
different ways that they think that they can get to heaven.
Well, if I do this, if I do that, if, if we follow these
religious rules, if we do all these things and endure to the
end, then we can have salvation. That's all on you.
Then that's you doing something. That's you making things work
out for yourself. That's not what the Bible says.
The Bible says it's the power of God for salvation.
It's, it's the power of God that brings us to salvation.
Romans chapter 1 and verse 16 says for I am not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone that believeth, to the Jew 1st and also to the Greek.
That's the first step if you want the power of God in your
life. And I don't know if there's
anybody in here this morning that would say that they don't
want to have God's. Power in their life.
If you want the power of God in your life so that you can be an
effective servant, then you must accept Jesus Christ as your
Savior. You ever seen how ridiculous
somebody looks when they're trying to play an air guitar or
an air trumpet? You know, people, people air
trombone. I mean, all these air
instruments that people play, you know, and then most time,
obviously, everybody's doing it in jest.
You've probably all done it at some point yourselves.
We do it when we're playing around.
But nobody would actually take an air guitar into a band and
expect that it's going to do anything.
And I've never, I've never been to a concert where somebody
said, all right, and featuring and our Trump trumpet soloist,
and he comes out there and he's holding nothing and he picks it
up and he's acting like he's playing.
Right. Nobody's done that because it,
it's, it's ridiculous, right? You can't play and air anything,
right? But somebody that has not
accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior is trying to have the
power of God in their life. It's just like using an air axe,
right? You're swinging an axe.
That's not doing anything. It doesn't count for anything.
What do you think this young man in our story would have
accomplished by pretending to swing an axe?
They're out there knocking these trees down and fell in these
beams and everybody else is out there with real axes and they're
swinging and they're they're seeing the the wood chips flying
in all the directions as they're chopping at these trees.
And here he's out there with an air axe pretending like he's
swinging, right. I mean, he might fool some
people for a little bit because everybody else is busy, but
eventually everybody's going to stop and say, what is this guy
doing? Not only is he not accomplish
anything, not not only is he not accomplish anything, he looks
ridiculous doing it right. Because who swings an axe that
is not an axe, right? But that's exactly what happens
for people who want God's power on their life and they've never
even come to Him for salvation. You're swinging in the air, axe.
Matthew Chapter 7. In fact, turn over to Matthew
Chapter 7. I know this is a pretty familiar
verse to most of you because I've I've read this many times,
I've quoted it many times, and maybe a lot of you actually know
these verses as well. But I think it's worth looking
at these things again, because so many people in our world
today, so many people in America, so many people in our
churches today fit exactly into this category that we read in
Matthew Chapter 7 and verse #20. 2.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name, and in thy name have cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful?
Works verse 23 and then I will profession to them.
I never knew you depart from me ye that work in iniquity.
Who is he talking to? He's talking to the people that
are. Up in the front that are
preaching messages, that are leading worship.
That are casting out devils in Jesus name that are healing in
Jesus name. They're doing all of these
things and that's what they're counting on.
God haven't haven't we done all these things?
We did it all in your name. Doesn't that count for
something? And he says, I don't even, I
don't even know who you are and see that this, the sad reality
is that so many people think that they've been in church for
a while or they've had some baptism experience or they, you
know, they don't, they don't want to face the reality of
their sinful condition. Because what are people going to
think? I've been in church a long time.
What happened? If I come and say, I'm not sure
that I'm safe, what are people going to think about me?
They're going to think that I've been that I've been just playing
a game all along. And so many people put it out of
their minds. I'll just let everybody keep
thinking I'm saved. And maybe one day I'll stand
before God or he'll let me in because a lot of people thought
I was saved. Or maybe one day I'll, I'll get
it right and, and I'll just, maybe I'll just do it on my own
sometime and, and just make sure that I'm saved.
And I don't want people to think that I that I've been living my
life this whole way for all of this time and I don't even know
Jesus Christ as my Savior. But then they bury it and they
put it deeper and deeper and deeper and they don't want to
drill down deep and really get right with God.
So they go on pretending that they're saved.
I'm sorry to say that I think that in many good, solid
independent Baptist churches and in probably many other churches
as well, there's going to be a lot of people that stand before
God someday who's he's going to say, I never knew you.
And we're going to have a lot of our own things that we're going
to answer to God for. But I think we're going to drop
our mouths and say that person was never.
Saved because they convinced a lot of people.
And they made it look good, and they knew how to swing an axe to
make it look like they had God's power in their lives, to make it
look like they were doing something.
But they were accomplishing nothing for God because they
never even had His power for salvation.
They've never been to the foot of the cross.
Keep swinging. Keep swinging an air axe.
It counts for absolutely nothing, and you'll never have
God's power in your life until you have gone.
To the cross for salvation. Do you know that you're saved?
That's step #1 Even talking about any power is worthless
unless you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior.
And this is not a a gospel message this morning.
I'm not preaching the gospel this morning.
But what I am saying is I know that.
Most, if not every person in here would claim to be saved.
Every person in here would claim to know Jesus Christ as their
Savior. But my question to you this
morning is, do you really know Him?
Maybe a better question is, does he really know you?
Because that's what's going to count when we stand before Him
on judgment day. Oh, just because you got wet
somewhere and somebody told you that your sins were forgiven
does not mean that that's the case.
Have you been to the foot of the cross?
Have you repented and asked for forgiveness for your sins?
Do you know Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior?
I've told you the story before that I had a young man that that
graduated from high school and was given his testimony.
And his testimony was well, my mom told me that I was saved
when I was four years old. That's not a testimony of
salvation. You have to know Jesus Christ
for yourself personally. You have to come to the foot of
the cross personally and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.
So the first thing is that we need the power of God for
salvation. But if you go back into Second
Kings chapter 6, we have to understand that we need the
power of God for service, the power of God for service if you
are going to serve God. And you're going to be effective
at serving God. Then you need God's power to do
it. I want to give you 3 things.
About that, and we'll be done this morning #1 The power of God
is borrowed. He said that in verse #5 about
that axe head. But as one was felling a beam,
the axe head fell into the water, and he cried and said a
last master. For it was borrowed.
So the only power that we have is from God.
We get to. We get to.
Relying on ourselves a whole lot, don't we?
Well, I mean, I'm good looking. God's going to use me.
I'm talented. God's going to use me.
I know how to talk. God's going to use me.
I know how to do this. Certainly God's going to use me.
I mean, how would he not look at all the things that I can
accomplish for him? Why wouldn't God use me?
You are nothing without God's power.
You're nothing without God. OK, maybe you are a good looking
person and you can. Accomplish things because of
that. Who gave you those looks?
God can take that away from you in a second.
The ability to get up and speak. Who do you think gave you that
ability to get up there and speak?
God gave you that. He could take it away from you
in a second. Yeah.
The very breath that you are breathing this morning.
Who gave that to you? God gave you that, and he could
take it away in a heartbeat if he wanted to.
You are nothing without God. And yet we try to pretend that
we're God's gift to mankind. Because look what I can
accomplish for him. Not without God's power.
It's borrowed. John chapter 15 and verse #5 I
am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in him the same bringeth forth much
fruit. He says this, for without me ye
can do nothing. It's like a stick that's laying
on the ground that's trying to act like a tree.
How ridiculous. Because it's not attached to
anything. It cannot grow, it cannot live.
The only way that that stick can can live and and bear.
Fruit or grow leaves or anything is if it's attached.
To the tree. And that's exactly what Jesus is
saying. I'm the vine, you're the you're,
you're the branches. If you're not attached to me, if
you don't have my power, you can't do anything without me.
The only power that this young man had for chopping down trees
was in the axe head. Without the axe head, the axe
was useless. It didn't matter if it was a
beautifully carved handle, didn't matter if it was made out
of solid, beautiful wood. Didn't matter if it fit
perfectly into the hand. If it had no axe head on it, it
doesn't accomplish anything. There's a lot of people running
around exactly like that. They look great, they're
polished. They're they're they, they're
fit perfectly for that position. But they're not accomplishing
anything for God because there's no axe head attached to it.
I heat my house with wood and I've been doing that for a long
time. In fact, we grew up heating our
house with wood. We've been chopping and
splitting wood for a long time, but never have I told my wife,
well, I'm going to go out and see what I can chop today.
I've got my axe handle. I'm going to go see how much I
can accomplish. No, never have, I said.
Well, my chainsaw chain broke, but I'm going to take the
chainsaw out there anyway and see what I can do, right?
It'll make a lot of noise. From somebody at a distance, it
might sound like you're doing a whole lot of work.
Actually, somebody that's got a trained ear can tell that I
ain't doing anything. Fact I, I was, this was pretty
funny because, and obviously I've been doing it a long, long
time. So I can I kind of have that,
that, that sense myself. But I was out there one time and
my neighbor came over and he said.
Is your chain dull? And actually it was.
I said, yeah, I mean, I'm just, I only had a few pieces left to
cut up. I'm finished, He said, man, I'm
over at my house and I can hear it.
He's like, it is hurting me listening to you trying to cut
that wood. I said, well, it is, but I was
just finishing up a few pieces. I'll.
Sharpen it later. But never have I said, well,
when I go out and see how much wood I can split, I don't have a
chain. But we'll see what I can
accomplish today. No, I go out to split and cut
wood. I get my chain sharpened right,
I have my own little sharpener and I sharpen the whole chain
before I go out. And I make sure that my axe has
a has a decent edge on it before I go out there and try to split
anything. Because what's the point of
doing it if you know that you're not going to accomplish
anything? And yet so many people do that.
They've got sin in their life that they know is there.
They don't have. They're not having, they don't
have a relationship with God. They're not reading their Bible,
they're not praying. They, they know that their
relationship with God is, is very empty and very shallow.
And yet I'm just going to show up and go to visitation and hope
that nobody else notices that I'm swinging an axe that doesn't
have a head on it. I'm going to, I'm going to go
out and try to, to share the gospel with my, with my
coworkers and with my neighbors and, and, and with some other
people. But I've got a chainsaw that has
no chain. I'm making a lot of noise but
I'm not really accomplishing. Anything.
How foolish that is of us to try to think that we can go out and
do things in our own power. Without me, He can't do nothing,
Jesus says. The problem is that so often we
start thinking that we're something and that we're worth a
whole lot to God. We are only.
Vessels for God to show his power through.
This young man would never have been able to chop down a tree in
his own strength. He might have thought he could,
but he had to learn otherwise very quickly.
And we'd laugh at somebody like that.
How foolish. What do you think?
You're going to go chop the tree down with that axe handle?
But we do it. All the time God looks at us in
the same way when we try to do things in our own power.
He looks at us and he says, remember what I told you?
Without me he can do nothing. That young man could have
continued to swing. And act like nothing was wrong.
Right, the axe had fell off and. Blew.
Right down into the water. They could have looked around
and nobody saw it, so he could just keep swinging and act like
nothing happened, right? Could have, and probably not a
lot of people would have noticed it, at least right away.
But he wouldn't have gotten anywhere.
And we are useless as vessels for Christ unless we are
connected to the power and the power can only come from Him.
Heard a story about a missionary in Kenya and he was, somebody
gave him a car to to help him out because he was he was biking
to most of these little villages and, and somebody found out
about it in the US and they donated.
A car to him so he drove that car for a while and everything
was great but then all of a sudden the car started acting up
a little bit and he was not mechanical at all he didn't
really know what to do so he figured out that if he could get
some of these young young men to push his car he could pop the.
Clutch and start it and everything would be great.
Either that or he could part it, park the car in a little bit of
an incline and and release the brake and start sliding forward
a little bit. He get a little bit of speed.
He could pop the clutch in, the car would start.
So the time came and he did this for a couple years exactly like
that. And the time finally came.
He was going to come back to the US for some for for furlough.
He was going to go back and visit some of the different
churches and everything in a missionary was coming to replace
him. And so he he said, hey, I have a
vehicle and you're more than welcome to use it.
But here's all the things you got to park it on a hill.
You got to get somebody to push it.
You got to pop the clutch and and hope that it starts and the
the missionary that was coming to replace him, he said.
Well. I know a little bit about cars
and let me look at it real quick and see what I can do.
And he opened the hood and he said, brother the the battery
cable is barely connected. He tightened the cable on the
car, started the car right up for two years.
That missionary had been popping the clutch, parking on hills,
making sure that he didn't get into a spot where he couldn't
back out because he had to do all of these things to try to
get the power going when all it was is just he wasn't connected
to the power. The battery was right there all
along. It had the power that he needed.
He just wasn't connected to it. And how we do the same thing.
It's time that a lot of us Recon reconnected to the battery and
recognize who the battery. Is.
Our power is not from us. Our power comes from God and we
have to be connected to His power.
It's not in your power that you're going to accomplish
anything. The power of God is borrowed.
But I want you to see this number 2, The power of God is
necessary. Turn over to 2nd Corinthians
chapter 4. See, having the power of God in
our lives is the only way to truly give glory to God through
our lives. I think again that everybody
would say, I want God to be glorified by my life.
I want, I want God to get the glory.
I want God to be lifted up. I want Christ to be lifted up by
my life. The only way that that's going
to happen is if you are using his power, if you are a vessel
that is just allowing his. Power to flow through you.
Second Corinthians chapter 4 and verse #15 The Bible says this
For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace
might, through the Thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of
God. See this young man in our story
lost the axe head as he was swinging.
You notice that he wasn't just doing nothing and the axe head,
the axe handle rotted and he dropped the the axe, right?
He was busy, he was working. He had the power of God in his
life and as he's swinging, he lost that power.
He lost the very thing that was helping him to accomplish what
he was trying to accomplish. I think sometimes we get so busy
even doing good things. He was, he was building a
dormitory with the other students that were in the
college that were trying to learn how to be prophets, right?
He wasn't doing a bad thing. He wasn't, he wasn't out
sinning. He didn't lose God's power
because he was in a place that he shouldn't have been.
He was in a place where he was supposed to be doing things that
he was supposed to do. And he got so busy working that
he didn't notice that the axe head was getting loose.
And the longer it went and the farther the the longer he
worked. The axe had finally worked its
way loose and it fell off. He could have pretended.
Everything's great. Keep swinging the axe.
I didn't lose anything. What?
What are you talking about? Right.
But the next thing we know it's gone and we're working
frantically and nothing is being accomplished.
You wonder why. Many times it feels like you're
spinning your wheels and I can't get anywhere.
I'm doing all this work and I I'm trying to lead somebody to
Christ and I just, I can't lead anybody to Christ.
I'm trying to do this and I'm trying to do that and just seems
like I can't get anywhere. Have you have you gone back to
see if you? Actually have God's power, or
you just trying to do it in your own strength.
Look, most of us have been in church long enough that we know
what the right thing is to do, right?
You know how to play the game. You know how to look like a good
Christian to everybody else around you.
You know how you how you dress up in a in a suit and carry your
Bible to church and how you should act around everybody who
expects you to act a certain way and and you can carry on for a.
Long time swinging that axe pretending that everything is
fine with no axe head on it. And I wonder how many Christians
there are in churches across the country.
I wonder how many Christians are in this church right here that
lost the axe had a long time ago.
And you're just still swinging so that nobody notices that
you're missing it. We need to have God's power.
And you wonder why you're not accomplishing anything for God.
Maybe it's because you don't have it.
Maybe it's because you're just pretending to swing the axe and
there's no head on that axe. Go back to where you lost it.
Go back to where it fell into the water.
And that's exactly what Elijah said.
Hey, point to me. Where you where, where, where
you lost it? Where did it go in at?
I mean, he was getting ready to do a miracle, right?
I mean, you're going to make an axe head float.
Does it matter where it went in? All right?
I mean, if you, if you throw the, the stick in the water 20
feet upstream, is it does that mean the axe heads not going to
float? No, but he had to go back to
where he lost the axe head. Where, where exactly did it go
in the water? And that young man said it was
right there. I, I, I dropped it right there.
Maybe that's what you need to do.
I'm just spinning my wheels. I don't feel like I'm
accomplishing anything for God. All right, Go back and see where
you lost God's power. Go back and see where you
allowed things that that that should not have been in your
life to be in your life. Go back and see where those sins
are in your life that are keeping you back.
Go back and see where you got so busy serving the king that you
forgot who the king. Was and see if you can get God's
power back. That young man might have looked
busy, but nothing would have been getting done.
And when we lose God's power in our lives, we can fool some
people for some of the time, but eventually it's going to come
out. Eventually it's going to be
exposed by the way, that hinders the production of everybody else
around you, too. All right, Hey, let's let's go
knock these trees down so we can build this dormitory because
this place is too small. All right, Yeah.
Everybody out there together. Oop, oop.
I lost my accent. I'm just going to keep swinging
and act like everything's fine, man.
Why is this taking us so long? Why are we not accomplishing
anything? Because you got 3 or 456 guys
that are swinging an axe with no axe head on it.
What do you think's going to happen?
It's going to affect everybody. It doesn't.
Many times you think it just effects you.
Well, I know I'm not exactly where God wants me to be, and I
know that I've got to. I've got to get some things
right with God. But it's just me.
It's only affecting me. No, it's affecting everybody.
It's affecting the work of the church going forward.
Look what happened with Aiken at AI. 36 men lost their lives, 36
women lost their husbands, 36 kids, probably more lost their
father because there was sin in the camp and it was keeping them
from accomplishing what they could accomplish.
And the same thing is true when it comes to us in our lives
without God's power. You might think it's only
affecting you, but it doesn't only affect you, it affects all
of us. Keeps all of us from
accomplishing what God wants us to accomplish.
We all need to make sure that we have God's power on our lives.
The key is that we must go back to the place where we lost our
power and make things right with God.
That young man didn't try to hide the fact that he lost his
axe head. He went to the man of God and he
told him everything. And I'm not saying that you've
got to come to me and confess your sins or anything like that,
but we have to confess our sins if we expect God to bless us.
What caused us to lose our power?
God, I know it was right there. God and I'm, I'm, I'm not trying
to hide that fact anymore. I know it was right there that I
lost your power. Please, please can I have it
back? It's just, it's just borrowed
power anyway. It's not, it's not mine.
I I know I need it from you and I'm just, I'm just a poor
Sinner. I need that power back.
God, it went in right there. Can you do something to give it
back? I want you to see this.
Lastly, the power of God is miraculous.
Notice in verse number six of Second Kings chapter 6 the man
of God said where fell it, They showed him the place and he cut
down a stick and cast it in thither.
And the iron did swim Elijah. Elijah cut off that that that
stick and threw it into the water.
That piece of the tree that he threw into the water I think
represents the cross. You know, if the axe head
represents the power of God, then certainly the stick can
represent the cross. Turn over to 1st Corinthians
chapter 1. First Corinthians chapter 1 and
verse #18 Because see, the truth is, we must get back to the
cross where our sins were forgiven and make it right with
God. First Corinthians chapter 1 and
verse #18 The Bible says for the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it
is. The power of God when we go back
to the cross and when we lay our sins there at Jesus's feet the
same way that we did however many years before for salvation,
the miracle of all miracles takes place.
He forgives our sins. He's faithful and just to
forgive our sins. The Bible says He restores our
fellowship with Him and He allows us to have the power that
we lost. But an what?
An what a wonderful phrase. The iron did swim.
The Bible says, I can see Elijah pointing to that axe head
floating on the top of the water.
He said, look, verse #7 therefore said, he take it up to
thee. And he put out his hand and took
it. That young man was probably
standing there awestruck. I mean, I thought, I thought
maybe you were going to make the water clear so I could see it
and go down and get it or something.
I didn't know that the that the iron was going to just.
Float to the surface. Iron doesn't float, and Elijah
had to say it's right there. Go pick it up.
There's your axe head. Isn't that what you asked me
for? Go get it.
It's not some magic trick. It wasn't some optical illusion
that Elijah was performing. It was a genuine miracle,
miracle from God, George Mueller said.
This faith does not operate in the realm of the possible.
There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible.
Faith begins where man's power ends.
That's faith. That's, that's, that's true.
God can perform a miracle in your life to get your power
back. God, God's power is available
for us to use. We just need to be right with
him and we can reach out and take it.
I just think about how pointless it would be for this young man
to just continue swinging that axe even for 5 minutes without
the axe head right? Even for 30.
Seconds. What's the point of swinging an
axe with no head on it? But he was smart enough to say,
I'm not accomplishing anything. The head's gone.
Fell in right there. Can you do something to help me
get it back? God performed a miracle through
Elijah. And when I think about how
pointless it is for us to continue working in the church,
to continue knocking on doors, to continue trying to share the
message of the gospel, continue helping in ministries, continue
passing out tracts. All.
Without God's power. And yet we think we're going to
accomplish something. How pointless.
I read a story about a man that he was during the Great
Depression and and like most people he was just barely
scraping by, hardly had anything and and even for for a little
time after the Great Depression. His name was Yates and he had a
sheep ranch in Texas and the rolling hills in Texas and, and
he owned a sheep ranch and he was doing everything he can to
keep those sheep alive and just put some food on the table for
his family and. His business wasn't generating
any money to pay the principal on his mortgage, let alone the
interest. And so we ended up living on a
government subsidy and a lot of other things that that he had to
borrow money for and everything else.
And so his days were just filled with with stress over the
financial concerns and everything else that was was
happening in his life. How?
Am I going to get by? And one day a seismographic crew
asked if they could explore his land to see if there was some
oil on his property. And once you know that at about
1100 feet, they struck a huge oil reserve and the first well
produced 80,000 barrels of oil a day.
And one by one they kept. Hitting the oil on this man's
property and, and, and one of them, several of them are
actually still producing oil even today and one of them is
producing oil at 120. 5000 barrels a day here.
This man barely getting by. Spent years of his life worrying
about money, worrying about how he was going to, how he was
going to make ends meet and right under his feet was
everything that he needed at his disposal.
He just had to tap in to that oil.
I think many times we don't realize the tremendous resources
that God's provided for us for Christian service and we just
barely getting by in our spiritual life.
Barely. Barely accomplishing anything.
Barely getting up in time to read our Bibles and pray.
Barely. Barely getting ourselves to
church. Barely getting by.
Just enough to make it look like we're still accomplishing
something for. God and we're not accomplishing
anything. And why not?
Because we haven't tapped into God's power.
It's there, it's available. It's enough for everybody in the
entire world to have all they'll ever need.
And yet Christians keep going, keep swinging an axe with no axe
head on it, keep trying to accomplish something when you're
actually accomplishing nothing. See, we all have the power of
God available to us. How much power we have depends
on how right we are willing to be with God.
It's foolish of us to go and live in our lives without God's
power when we have the vast resources of heaven available to
us. Doesn't he own the cattle on
1000 Hills? The wealth in every mine he
owns, the rivers and the rocks and the reels, the sun and stars
that shine, He has all of it. It's all his.
And he can give us anything that we need to have through his
power. And yet we're still swinging an
axe with no head on it. How ridiculous is that?
If we're not, If you're not as excited about the things of God
as you used to be, maybe it's because you're not as in touch
with the source of power as you used to be.
Maybe you've allowed some sin to get in.
Between you and the Lord, Maybe you've just gotten so busy
working for God that you forgot where your power comes from.
Maybe you get so busy doing things for the.
Lord. And and and.
Living for the Lord that you've just learned how to go on.
Acting like everything is perfectly fine even though you
know. It's not you have the power of
God in your life. If not, let's get back to the
cross. Number one, you need to God's
power for salvation. You need to know your Savior.
You'll never. It's like it's like trying to
drive a car with no battery even in it, but you need God's power
for service. Got the battery there.
You just have to connect to it. Not going to accomplish anything
if you don't have God's power. So that's my question for you
this morning. Do you have God's power in your
life? Can you honestly, would you
honestly evaluate your life? Would you honestly evaluate
yourself and say, do I have God's power?
Am I accomplishing things in my life?
Am I doing something for the Lord that's going to count for
eternity because I have God's power on my life?
It's a simple simple. Thought the power of God.
I want God's power. I want to have God's power in my
life. But do you have it?
Do you have it? Let's pray.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
Thank you for the fact that we all have your power available to
us. God, may you help us all to use
it. May you help us all to be in a
position where we're not just swinging an axe with no head on
it, but God, that we first of all recognize that the power
only comes from you, but also that it's pointless if we don't
have your power. May you help us all, and you
help us all to go back to where we lost it if we need to and get
things right with you so that we can be used by you.
Thank you again for all that you do for us.
In Jesus name, Amen.