Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at mylibertybaptist.org or just
look us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's word will be a blessing to you.
You would turn your Bibles, please, to Matthew chapter #28
Matthew chapter 28. And once you have done so, if
you put your ribbon in your Bible over at Ephesians chapter
#1 we'll be going back and forth between these two texts.
You want to remain in Matthew chapter 28, but we will also be
going to Ephesians chapter 1. So you can put your marker
there, and then we'll be going back and forth.
If you don't have a marker in your Bible, grab that envelope
that's right in front of you can put that right in there as well.
Just make sure, you know, you give it back when you're done.
You know, it's a just, you know, put it back in the, the, the
rack there. But if you need to do that,
you're certainly more than welcome to do so.
We do have another special this morning that I'd like to give to
you. You didn't know that there was
going to be one more special, did you?
But I'm going to give it to you right now because I think it
goes along really well with the message.
Are you ready? Oh, Diane's not up here.
So I guess I'm have to do it by myself.
Here's goat. Are you ready?
My God is so big, so strong and so mighty.
There's nothing my God cannot do.
There you go. All right, man, I felt really
exposed here. And Justin help me out there.
The mountains are his, the rivers are his.
The stars are his handiwork too. My God is so great, so strong
and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do
for you. All right, that's pretty good.
All right, Well, I didn't say. I mean, I'm pretty good, but I'm
just saying that's the special right there.
You know, that's the kind of song that the ladies would teach
in the back and probably do teach to the young people in our
Sunday school and our junior church.
And you know, we teach this to the kids and they really believe
it that our God is so great, He's so big, so strong and so
mighty. There's nothing my God cannot
do. And I will tell you that those
children back there, particularly the ones who have
called upon Jesus Christ their Savior with childlike faith,
they really believe that. I'm so thankful that they have
that belief. But something happens from when
we're that age and to when we get to this age where
theologically we believe. What I just saying
theologically, we believe the truth of those words, but yet we
don't truly show it by the way we live our lives that God is
omnipotent, that God is all powerful.
This morning I believe there's a disconnect between how big
people God or how big people believe.
People believe God's big. This is not a good start.
This is why you don't sing before you start preaching.
People believe God's big, but don't live like God's big.
So what's the disconnect? And how can we make sure we live
our lives in a way that is theologically correct, that
Christ is, Here's our word this week, omnipotent.
Would you please stand for the reading of God's Word?
We're in Matthew chapter 28. We'll begin reading verse #18.
It says, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded
you. And lo, I'm with you alway even
unto the end of the world. And all God's children can say,
Amen. Heavenly Father, be with us this
morning as we look at this text. Lord, help me to be able to say
what needs to be said about this issue of Christ in His power.
Lord, thank you for his power. Thank you for your power, the
power of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Help us to not just know it, but to live it.
Help us to understand it as best as our finite minds can, but
then to act it out in our day-to-day lives.
We thank you for it all and we ask your blessing upon it in
Jesus name, Amen. Thank you may be seated.
Psalm 147 verse 5 says great is our Lord and of great power.
His understanding is infinite. There's a lot of powerful
things, a lot of powerful forces in this world.
A wildfire consumes everything in its path.
You've ever seen the destructive nature of a wildfire?
You know of its great power. We talked this morning in Sunday
school about the power of a volcano.
It releases the force of the Earth's interior, erupting with
molten rock and pressure capable of burying cities and altering
geography. A hurricane can unleash winds of
sustained nature and storm surge over vast regions, moving
oceans, destroying structures with relentless organized power.
We even look outside of our world and consider the power of
even a supernova, an explosion so violent that in a few seconds
it releases more energy than our sun, lighting up space and
tearing the star apart. Those are all powerful forces,
whether it's a wildfire of volcano, a hurricane, or yes,
even a supernova. But yet none of these are more
powerful than God. Hebrews chapter one verse one
through 3 says God, who had sundry times and in divers
manners spake in times past, under the fathers, by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the world's, Who being the brightness of his glory and the
express image of his Person, and hear this upholding all things
by the word of his power. What does Jesus Christ do?
He upholds all things by the word of his power.
You can consider a wildfire, you can consider a volcano, a
hurricane, all of the stars that you find in the sky and all of
their power simultaneously is upheld by the very power of the
word of Jesus Christ. The Triune God is not just
powerful, He is the source of all power.
Now let me run that by you one more time.
He is not just powerful, He is the source of all power.
He is the power plant, if you will.
But unlike a power plant today that would need a source of
energy to be able to have it produce power, to be able to
convert that energy from one thing into something else, He is
the source of power. He is the very essence.
There is nothing that needs to power up our Lord.
He needs no batteries. He doesn't need to be plugged
in. He is the very source in
Genesis. Reality as we know it is spoken
into existence by 4 words. Let there be light in
revelation. All the enemies of God amassed
upon the entire world will fall in a moment slain, as the Living
Word returns with the words. King of Kings and Lord of Lords
is upon him. He shows his power in Genesis.
He manifests his power. Revelation and the other 64
books in the middle all show the great power of God and that
power will also be manifested for all eternity as well.
Before we get deeper into our text today, we need to ask
ourselves this question. I mentioned that the title of
the message is Christ is Omnipotent, but what does
omnipotent mean? It's a word certainly that
theologically we use sometimes, but what does it mean if Christ
is omnipotent? Well, it's really easy for us to
just break this down into two different parts and understand
each part of the word. The word Omni means all these.
There are many Greek theological terms that use the word Omni.
In fact, there's three that are often used in churches to
describe who God is. Omniscient being all present, or
rather omnipresent being all present, omniscient being all
knowing and then omnipotent. So all is Omni but potent.
What does that mean? Well that word potent literally
means power. When you consider a medication,
what is its potency? That means what is its power?
And so as we consider who God is, he is omnipotent, mean, he
is all powerful. He's not partially powerful.
He is not at sometimes powerful in all times, in all ways, God
is powerful. And again, that ought to make
all God's children say Amen. Now this is the place in our
message where we want to kind of look at our text and not just
look at the Word. OK, we have an understanding of
the Word. We saw power was in our text
here just a few moments ago in this telling of the Great
Commission by Jesus Christ. And in verse 18 we do see the
word power. And Jesus came and spake unto
them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
But we ask ourselves this question, why is Jesus talking
about his power? Why is this important as he's
about to give? What is the Great Commission?
Now I will say that the newer versions that you'll find out
there of the Bible will take the word power and actually take it
out of Scripture and will replace it with the word
authority. Now this is a grave error
because there's a difference between having the word power
there and the word authority there.
Some people have authority but don't have power.
You ever had a boss? Maybe I should stop right there.
You're at a boss that had authority but had no power.
I remember when I worked both at the jewelry stores in college
and Gordon's and at Kay Jewelers, and both of them
required that we were to get a credit application today, that
from our customers, we were to have someone to sign up for a
Gordon's credit card or a Kay's credit card.
And at the end of the day, in both companies, we had to call
over to the Home Office to our district manager and we had to
tell them amongst our sales statistics how many credit
applications we had taken during that day.
And I remember this was not something that I like to do.
What does it naturally come into conversation and say, oh, by the
way, would you like to get into debt with this ring?
It's not really something that I want to talk about, but I had to
because it was part of it. I remember for a while I really
struggled. I had to make those calls.
But you know what I found out after a while?
I had to report those numbers, but the district manager never
did anything about it. Never called back and said, hey,
you need to do more. Never said you're going to be
under suspension. Never said, hey, if you don't
get this right, you're not going to be of a job.
I found out that this district manager had a lot of authority
but didn't exactly have the power that I thought that they
had. The Greek word for power here is
exousia, and it means the power to do something, and it was a
technical term that was used in courts.
Just the word power alone gives the connotation of authority.
It's not that authority is not here, but if you just put the
word authority there, it removes the very fact that Jesus Christ
has authority but has the power to back it up.
Jesus Christ does have all authority today, but He also has
the power to be able to do that which He has authority for in
the 1st place. And there are many that walk
around and pretend to have authority these days.
There are many who walk around and are paper tigers.
But no, Jesus is no paper tiger. Jesus is no paper champion.
No, He is the one who has authority and has the power to
back it up. It's why it's important that we
see here that all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Charles Spurgeon said power in the hands of some people is
dangerous, but power in the hands of Christ is blessed.
Oh, let him have all power, Spurgeon says.
Let him do what he will with it, for he cannot do anything but
that which is right and just and true and good.
There is no abuse of power with our Savior.
There is no lack of power with our Savior.
There is no lack of authority with our Savior.
He is the one who has all power. Now, as we look at verse #18 you
might be bothered by or concerned by the phrase that
immediately follows the word power.
All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Did you notice that as we were reading it?
And maybe that bothers you a little bit because you think,
well, does that mean Jesus didn't have power?
And now at this moment, he did have power.
Well, I'm going to set your fears at rest before we get into
what it means here in just a moment.
You do understand that Jesus Christ has always had power,
that it wasn't just at this moment, that power had been
conferred upon Him by the Father that we already mentioned a few
moments ago. Hebrews chapter one verse 3.
But also consider John one verse 3.
All things were made by Him and without him, without anything
made that was made. Jesus was an active part of
creation, by the way, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all active
within that of creation. What about Colossians chapter 2,
verses 9 and 10 for Colossians, pray for your
pastor, Amen. Pray for your pastor's wife.
Amen. Colossians 29 and 10.
For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and ye are complete in him which is the head of all principality
and power. Which looked at that in Sunday
school a few moments ago. Revelation 1 verses 1718.
Fear not, I am the 1st and the last.
I am he that liveth was dead, and behold, I am alive
forevermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and death.
No, you do not need to be concerned that Jesus Christ was
just conferred power when He came to this world.
You do not have to be concerned that Jesus Christ was conferred
power as He's giving the Great Commission in Matthew chapter
28. Jesus has always been powerful
because Father and Son and Holy Ghost did not just appear in
Genesis 11. They have always been and they
have always been powerful. So that's what's not being said.
So the question is what is being said?
Because it does say all power is given unto Him.
You'll give it unto me in heaven and earth.
And the answer is important for us to be able to understand how
this deals with ourselves. And remember when I told you to
put your ribbon there in Ephesians chapter #1 Why don't
you go ahead and turn there now like a waste any time we're
going to write to Ephesians chapter 1 and pick up in verse
#17 But the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling,
and what the riches of His glory, of the glory of His
inheritance in the Saints. And what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to us Word who believe according to
the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when
He raised Him from the dead. Now stop there for a moment.
You say it's saying that the Father raised Christ from the
dead. And the answer is yes, that the
Father did raise Christ from the dead.
But you know who else raised Christ from the dead?
Christ. Why would you say that, Pastor?
Well, Jesus made clear in John chapter 10.
He says I lay my life down and I pick it back up again.
But it's also the Holy Spirit who is involved in the
resurrection of Christ, as we find in Romans chapter #8 as
well. It seems to be that Father and
Son and Holy Ghost were all actively involved in the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. So don't be concerned there when
it says He raised him from the dead, meaning the Father that it
was Father, Son, and Holy Ghost all together.
We're not talking about 3 different gods here.
We're talking about the same God far above principality, verse
21. Far above all principality and
power and might and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in the world to come.
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the
fullness of him that filleth All in all.
Back in our text, when Jesus says all power is given unto me
in heaven and in earth, what he is saying is he's imparting some
of His final words to the church.
And yes, he is speaking to the church here.
Why is that important if he is just speaking to the disciples?
As soon as the disciples are gone, the Commission is gone as
well. He's speaking to the church
which he founded in the Gospels when He called His disciples.
That church which had already formed that church which He
spoke of in Matthew chapter 16. In that Church of which he spoke
of in Matthew chapter 18, that church that had already held the
ordinances. That church had already had a
business meeting in Acts chapter one.
That church in Acts chapter 2, when 3000 people got saved, they
were baptized and added unto them being the church.
Jesus is talking to His church there on that mountainside as
it's about to go, and he says all power is given unto me in
heaven and earth, meaning as I'm about to depart from you,
understand that I am the power, I am the authority of the
church. And it says it right there and
has put all things under his feet and gave him to behead over
all things to the church. What he's saying here is I have
been assigned to be the head of the church.
No, this shouldn't bother us here this morning.
Just as it's one of his tasks, as the Holy Spirit has a task of
being a comforter, and the Holy Spirit has the task of being our
guide and teacher. He is saying in go back to
Matthew chapter #28 leave your ribbon there, but go back to
Matthew chapter 28. All power.
Nobody went back there, but that's OK.
All power. You think I can't watch you and
hear you, but I hear nothing's happening.
All right. All power is given unto me in
heaven and earth saying this. All power is given to me to be
the head, the chief cornerstone of the church.
It's not that he wasn't powerful before, but he is exerting his
authority over the church. This is his church.
Liberty Baptist Church belongs to him.
Every Bible preaching church that preaches the truth is His
church. And he says all power is given
unto me in heaven and earth. And he says it's important that
you know this. Why is it important?
You know? This text we're looking at in
Matthew 28 is commonly called the Great Commission.
The Great Commission is given in different forms in Matthew,
Mark, Luke, John, and the beginning of the book of Acts.
Perhaps Matthew is the one that we quote the most, but there's a
word in verse #19 that's so vitally important.
And if we quote the Great Commission, as I often do, it's
a word. Sometimes I accidentally omit,
and it's the word therefore. Now I want to help you with a
principle of Bible study this morning.
If you see a word therefore in your Bible study, you need to go
back and see what the therefore is.
Therefore, look, I know I can have a coughing fit every 5
minutes or so, but I'm not crazy about this, OK?
If you see the word, therefore you want to see what the
therefore is. Therefore why is it there?
Well, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth.
Therefore go ye into all the world, teach all nations, rather
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I've commanded you. Lo, I'm with you alway even unto
the end of the world. Amen.
He's saying because I am the authority of the church,
therefore I'm telling you, I want you to go.
And as I tell you to go, this is important.
As I tell you to go, understand when you go, you will have
power. We're having a soul winning
conference this week. What's that about?
We're trying to teach people how to be able to win people to
Christ. To be able to tell friends and
neighbors, loved ones, strangers about Jesus Christ.
This is the task of which He's called us to do.
How incredibly cruel would our Savior be to give us a mission
and then not give us the tools that are needed to be able to
accomplish the mission? I mean, maybe you've been in
that situation before where a boss asked you to fulfill a
project, but then didn't give you the tools that you need to
fulfill the project, and then you got in trouble when you
didn't do the project. It was really the person that
was the authority. It was the problem.
Pretty quiet. So I guess that's happened to
many people here. Or just waiting for me to call
off again. I don't know.
We could be one of the two. How cruel would our Savior be?
They go and give the components the Great Commission when people
to Christ, baptize them, disciple them.
That's distilling the Great Commission right there.
And what do we disciple them to do?
Well, to live a victorious Christian life, to come more
like Christ, and also to reach other people as well so that it
can continue to perpetuate. How cruel would our Savior be to
say, I want you to do it, but you're on your own.
But that would be pretty lousy. But First Thessalonians chapter
#5 and I mentioned this last week, I believe it says faithful
is he who calleth you who also will do it.
He does. He doesn't call you to do things
of which he will not equip you to do.
And God as the authority, Jesus Christ as the authority of the
church says this. I'm going to send you, But as I
send you, I will give you, what's the word power?
So you think that you can't share your faith with someone
else, But he says I'll give you power.
You think you don't know what to do, but he says I'll give you
power. You think nobody will listen to
you because it's 2026, so I'll give you power.
You think the message isn't palatable anymore?
But sure, you received it, but how are you supposed to give it
to someone else? But he says He will give you
power. Why is this important?
Because this is His church. God didn't just authorize us to
reach the community, but He empowers us to be able to reach
this community as well. There is no other organization
that you can find on this earth that is well equipped to be able
to reach the World like the local church.
Oh, there's other groups that are out there, but the Boys and
Girls Club can't do it. A A can't do it.
The Rotary Club can't do it. No town hall can do it.
You say, pastor, are you saying those are all bad people?
I'm saying that they are not authorized and equipped to be
able to reach this world like you and I are, to reach this
community for Christ. But go back to Ephesians for
just a moment, because I can see this doesn't really excite you
yet. But be honest, be honest.
It's OK. We're not.
We're not excited about it. Maybe that's good.
Belinda's, that's good. I like that.
That's a new believer right there, Amen.
I love that. That's good, That's good.
And we need to be back to that, Amen.
But I think in some ways, maybe that seems like it's kind of a
pie in the sky. Well, this deals with the
church, This deals with Liberty Baptist Church.
Maybe you even think it just deals with me as the pastor.
But may I remind you that the pastor is not Liberty Baptist
Church? May I remind you that this
pastor will not always be the pastor of Liberty Baptist
Church. The pastor?
You can't say that. Do you think I'll live forever?
What I'm saying is this. The Chief Cornerstone is not a
pastor. If it is on a faulty foundation,
Chief Cornerstone don't want the power and the authority is Jesus
Christ. But let's go back to Ephesians
chapter #1 go back to verse #19 and what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to to who?
Usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power.
We'll stop there for just a moment.
If the church is given power to be able to fill the Commission,
who makes up the church? Usens.
It sounds kind of King James does it, but it's not.
It's South, it's southern. He has given us the command,
which means this. He has given us power as well.
And you see what it says, because of his mighty power,
that he has given us power as well.
It stands to reason because of the Church has power, we make up
the church. Do you realize that the power of
God Almighty abides inside of you today?
No, I'm not talking about some weird kind of doctrine here this
morning that the Holy Spirit, who is God Almighty, the Spirit
of Christ, abides in you today. And it's not just the fact that
we have been given the Commission and empowered to go
do the Great Commission, which we have been, but that power
also extends to every part of our life as well as we try to
live the Christian life. You can't live the Christian
life on your own. You don't have the ability to do
that which God has called you to do on your own as a believer.
But it's Christ in you, the hope of glory, who can help us to be
more like Christ. If you're struggling with
habitual sin, what do we see? That the power of Christ abides
on you, and you can break the bonds of habitual sin, not
because of you, but because of Jesus Christ.
God has given you the power to overcome a terrible past.
God has given you the power to overcome fear.
God has given you the power to overcome the situation that you
don't know how you can untangle yourself from.
God has given you the power to overcome the emotions that seem
to run your life instead of being controlled by the Spirit.
That power is within you. That power is not you, but it is
within you. And for some reason we act like
we're powerless, toothless, and sometimes even gumless.
There's nothing we can do. And yes, half of that is true.
There is nothing you can do except to throw yourself at the
mercy of the one who saved you and say, I can't overcome sin,
but I know by your grace you can help me on my own.
I've tried to do what Christ has told me to do, but I keep
failing. But you can help me because that
power that belongs to him has also been given to me so I can
reach a lost world for Christ, but so that I also live more for
Christ in my day-to-day life. Are you tired of trying to be a
good Christian and missing out? Let me change that.
You are tired of trying to be a good Christian and missing out.
Oh, now you agreed. OK, I just, I had to change the
way I said it. Apparently you're making me work
today. I'll tell you you're tired of
it. Maybe the problem is that you're
the one that's trying to do it and it's not Christ.
Where's the power? He has all power.
It's been given to him and it manifests itself in the church
and also manifests itself in the Christian who makes up the
church. And we should understand that
that power is great. First John 4 verse four year of
God little children and have overcome them because greater is
he that is in you than he that is in the world.
I will say this that power does not just well up inside of you
because of who you are. You must be born again.
You must know Jesus Christ as your savior force whosoever is
born of God. First John 5/4 For whosoever is
born of God overcometh the world.
And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith, that's where it starts. So maybe today you feel like
you, you have no power. Could it be that you're not
saved? No, I'm not trying to say if you
have no power, you are not saved.
But I'm, I'm saying today that maybe you have never even taken
that step in your life, that you recognize that you're a Sinner,
that you recognize there's a real judgment to come, that hell
is real, that the lake of fire will you abide forever is real.
Yet Jesus Christ bore the penalty on the cross so you can
be saved. But then after that, what do we
see? If we're not careful, we can
still live very powerless lives before the Lord.
But I say this today, lift your head, believer.
The power of an omnipotent Christ has been granted unto
you. I'm not trying to be weird about
that. I'm saying this.
That power has been given to you.
We don't have time to go there, but you go to Acts chapter 1 and
we see that the power was given to us to fulfill the Great
Commission. All power is given unto you to
do what? To go to Jerusalem, Judea and
Samaria and the other most parts of the earth.
That God has given us power to fulfill the gospel, but He's
also given us the power to be able to live the life of a
person who can go and give the gospel in the 1st place.
So I can't do it. Well, through Him you can.
I can't beat Sin through him, you can.
I failed too many times. Through him you can do right?
Yes. Through him, in your own power,
no. Through him, yes.
So what do we need to do today? Let me give you 2 very practical
ways to help you here this morning and we're almost done.
What do you need to do when it comes to this issue of power?
First of all, number one, check your source.
Check your source for power. You know, if I was to have an
extension cord up here and I neglected to actually bring one
up here, but Dave, please don't go grab one, all right?
He would probably go and grab one for me.
He probably unplugged the computer back there and bring it
to me. And so we don't want to do that.
But if I was to have a power cord, an extension cord up here
today, imagine that I had a 10 foot cord and I had the one end
and I had the other end and I put them together and I'd say
go. You say, well, why?
Why is this working? Well?
Because it's plugged into itself and no power can emanate from
itself. It could only be a conduit from
a power source to something that needs power.
And I found a lot of Christians do, a lot of Christians are
plugged into themselves for power.
And you know what? They got nothing.
Why do we say you need to read your Bible every day to plug
into the power? Why do we say that you need to
pray not just every day, but every hour?
I need the every hour the song goes well, why?
Well, because we need to plug into the power.
Why do we need to meditate on God's word?
Why do we read a Bible verse? And sometimes I think we just
get to the point where we say pastor says read your Bible,
read your Bible, read your Bible.
Why are we reading our Bible? So you can check it off the
list. No, so it affects the rest of
your day. So did you find a verse that
really helped you? And maybe you set an alarm on
your phone that goes off every couple hours and that verse pops
up, you type it in and it's just a reminder stop.
Selah. The Psalm says meditate on this.
Think about it for a little bit, or else we get to the point
where we're just the independent Baptist say, well, I'm.
Going to read my Bible today Why?
Because I got to read my Bible today.
Why So I can read my Bible today?
Why so I can read my Bible today like.
That don't make any sense. I want to read my Bible today so
I can be like Christ. We'll plug into the power.
Too many believers that I've seen, they plugged in
themselves. You know why?
They don't want to go to church. They plugged in themselves.
You know, I found him. When I'm plugged into him, I
want to be here. I don't make excuses not to be
here. I make excuses to be here.
Why? Because I'm plugged in, right?
But I think a lot of Christians have trouble with the source,
but they also have trouble with sustainability.
Be this. They'll do it for a little while
and then unplug. They'll do it for a little while
and then unplug. Like in 1989, as a young lad
living in Tampa, we had a disaster, a state of emergency.
And that state of emergency where temperature sustained at
32° for about a week. Yeah.
It, it, it is, this is real.
In fact, I want to make sure that my memories of this were
not incorrect. And so I looked it up this week.
It's. It's all online.
So, you know, it's true. But anyway, 1989 what happened
was so many people were using their heat pumps and that's what
people would use in Florida still do to be able to heat
their homes because it's so rare to need to heat.
And the electrical grid was not prepared for the amount of
people using their heat pumps for three days or four days.
From around December 23rd until the 25th or 26th, depending on
where you were in Florida, there were rolling brownouts or
outright blackouts. Meaning this you had to be able
to use your power for a few hours and then it would turn off
and about 3 hours later it would turn back on.
Do you know how hard it is to cook a Christmas Turkey?
I remember my mom trying to, as soon as the power went on, cook
everything. And you can do that except for
the Turkey. You got to pull it back out.
The Turkey had to go back in and out, I believe at least once
because of the rolling Browns and nothing worked, nothing made
sense. Christmas, you get these gifts.
Oh, they got to plug in. There's no battery, you got to
plug it in. Oh, I get to play it for two.
Oh no, I'm done. Let me tell you, little 7 year
old Adam was very disappointed at that Christmas because of the
rolling brownouts. You can't do anything.
How can you do anything like that?
You do it for a minute, you stop.
You do it for a minute and stop. Does that sound familiar to
anybody here? You know, I'm not talking about
your power at your house. I'm talking about your Christian
life. You're really excited about
church for a while. I think you're not.
You're really excited about reading your Bible for a while,
and you're not. You're really excited about holy
living, about doing right, about the things you watch, the things
you listen to. Well, then you're not.
You're really excited about listening to the Spirit and then
you're not, you know, listen, I understand that the Christian
life says peaks and valleys. There are times that we do well
and there are times that we struggle a little bit and that
is natural. I do want to recognize that.
But I would also say there is an issue with sustainability where
we willing to plug in, but then something bad happens and we
unplug. Can I help you with something?
If you're struggling in your family, the place you need to be
is here, not away from here. If you are struggling with
personal sin, what you need to do is not watch more TV to dull
the pain, not listen to more podcasts or more music.
You know, unplug it all and get in your Bible.
You know, how is it strange that we could watch a 2 hour movie
and not even blink, but we asked someone to read their Bible for
two hours? It would be considered cruel and
unusual punishment. No, I'm serious.
But if you're struggling and you start a Bible study, I'm going
to read this. I see where this verse follows,
and I'm going to go here. I'm going to think about I'm
going to stop. I'm going to pray for a while.
I'm going to get a notebook and I'm going to write this.
I'm going to do that. Do you know how incredibly
helped you could be? And just that one sitting, let
alone sustaining Say, pastor, you saying we OK, we're not
supposed to do anything else but it.
You know, I'm saying that when we tap into the power, not the
power within, you give the power to be a champion.
I have the power to wreck my life and everything else around
me, but through Christ, I have the power to be able to live
like him. Not through some performance,
not like showing off in some pharisaical way, but by saying I
need to be plugged in the source and it's not me.
This is not going to work. I got to be plugged into him,
the power source, the originator of power.
But also I need some sustain, sustainability.
I can't unplug and replug and unplug and replug and unplug and
replug. Now listen, if you unplug and
you get away from the Lord for a while, don't take what I'm
saying as well, don't even replug, what's the point?
No, I'm serious. There's some people who feel
like that in their discouragement.
And who do you think is whispering that in their ear?
The Holy Spirit saying, don't come back to me.
That's Satan friend. That's what that is.
But stay plugged into him. And when you start to feel like,
I don't know that this is what I want to do, ignore your
feelings. Ignore your feelings.
I'm thankful God created feelings because we can feel
things, but those feelings when they guide our life, will guide
you right into the wall. Don't be guided by your
feelings. Be guided by faith.
Faith is this. I don't know that I want to read
my Bible today. You say pastor, people say that
if you haven't yet, you will. This pastor says it.
Sometimes I don't know if I want to read my Bible.
I got too much to do. I'm too busy or sometimes it's
the night and I realize I didn't even read it today.
It does happen sometimes I'm not I'm I'm not I don't like it.
I'm trying to be transparent with you, but the best thing
that you can do is to understand I have plug into Christ.
I stay plugged into Christ and if for some reason I unplug,
I'll run back in and plug in as quickly as possible.
Are you tired of living a powerless Christian life?
Says right here. The power was given to the
church. We could be a powerful force.
Even though we're a small group, say pastor.
We're a growing church. We are a growing church, but
compared to some, we are a small group.
Compared to a town of 25,000 we are a small group.
Do you realize it was a Church of 120 in Acts chapter #1 that
by the end of the book of Acts that turn the world upside down?
Why? Because those people were so
great? Who?
You mean like Peter and Paul who had baggage but God used them?
Why? Because it was him.
If God could use a man who says I don't know who Jesus is and
cursed at people for saying I don't know who Jesus is.
If God could use someone who had the baggage of the apostle Paul
who tried to destroy the churches and then become the
apostle to them. If God could use them, you think
he can use you? Why?
Because it's not about you, it's about his power.
Hey, plug in the right source, stay plugged in.
Sustainability. It's all about him.
He is omnipotent. Thank you for listening to the
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.