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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor May 12,
2002 For
the past five weeks I've been
talking with you about "opening
ourselves to God." That's the
title of this sermon series. 4-Trusting
Grace
and
Grace
Alone We
then turned our attention to
"opening our hearts" -- that is,
our wills "to God's
grace."
We
learned about "prevenient grace"
-- God's
initiative in the process of
salvation. We
learned of God's "justifying
grace" -- that we are saved from
sin and death by the gratuitous
action of God, and that we must
trust
His grace and His grace
alone
for our salvation. Then
we turned to God's
grace and our
holiness.
We learned that through
"sanctifying grace" God will make
us holy, if we will cooperate
with God in the process of
transformation. Today,
we turn to the subject, "opening
our minds to God's power." As
with each specific sermon title
in this series, there is a
purpose in the choice of words.
Although the heart is the center
of will, the mind is where we
sort out information,
probabilities, and possibilities.
If your mind tells you that
something is improbable or
impossible, it's not likely that
you will decide in your heart to
accept that thing or to act on
it. In
1987 I had the privilege of
attending an international
seminar at Emory University in
Atlanta on the theme, "The Holy
Spirit in World Evangelism." That
speaker was absolutely correct.
These are the questions we
confront on an almost daily
basis, not only in society but in
our own households. So
is God's power available to us?
Listen to the apostle Paul in 1
Corinthians 2:4-5: And
read with me Romans
1:16: Let
me remind you again, with the
same PowerPoint slide I used a
few weeks ago, about the full
meaning of the word in this
Romans 1 text that we translate
as "salvation." This word is
found in many other places in the
New Testament, as well. The word
is soteria -- and it's
about a lot more than just going
to heaven when you
die. How
does this power work in our
lives? I use two terms to
describe it. The first is
"staying power," which I'll cover
today. Second is "going power" or
the "power of Pentecost," which
I'll talk about next
week. Staying
power, given to us by God, works
in three ways to help us overcome
adversity and live life to its
fullest measure: First, it holds
before us the "power to change."
Next, it undergirds us with the
"power to stand." And, finally,
it manifests itself in the "power
to persevere." First
and central to the others, God's
grace makes available to us the
power to change: power to change
us and circumstances, power to
change institutions, power even
to change entire
nations. This
is incredibly important to
understand if we are to live in
hope. In my 17 years of pastoral
ministry, I've been involved in,
or had knowledge of, a number of
cases of couples whose marriages
were in trouble. Some of these
couples were reconciled. Others
ended their marriages in
divorce. What
was the difference? It is this:
in those cases that ended in
divorce, either one or both of
the parties did not have the
faith that God could change them
or their circumstances. Change
wasn't an option, they believed,
so they were faced with
continuing to live as they had in
the past, or divorcing. They
chose divorce. In
those cases where reconciliation
occurred, however, the parties
trusted the power of God to
change them so they could live
together in peace and joy and be
happily married. They also were
willing to do what was necessary
to accommodate God's transforming
power and they were willing to
endure the situation until God
could do the healing work they
needed. Consider
the 12 disciples. What was the
difference between Judas Iscariot
and the others? All 12 of them
betrayed Jesus in one way or
another. But Judas ended up a
dead, while the others were
privileged to continue the work
of Jesus. Why?
Because Judas cut himself off
from God's grace. He didn't trust
the healing, reconciling power of
God to change him and
circumstances. When he realized
the horror of what he had done,
he figured it was over. He
believed he had out-sinned God's
grace and therefore he lost all
hope. Now
listen carefully, this is so
important: You cannot out-sin
God's grace! Maybe
the situation you're in looks
impossible. But impossible is a
word that applies to us, not to
God. Look
with me at a couple of
Scriptures. First, Matthew
19:26: And
next, Luke 1:37 -- this is the
angel speaking to Mary, who was a
virgin, about the fact that
Messiah would be born from her
womb: God
has the power -- the power to
change us, to change
circumstances, to change
institutions. He has the power to
do the impossible
thing. In
addition to the power to
change,
there is what I call the power to
stand.
This has to do with personal
integrity. It is the power to
choose what is right by God's
standards and stick to it, even
in the face of all the
temptations and challenges that
beset us in this fallen world --
temptations to sin, to fall into
old habits that are destructive,
to give in to the pressures of
life; temptations to do things
the world's way, or our way,
rather than God's way. The
power to stand is the power to be
the kind of person God wants you
to be -- to have the character
and integrity that becomes a
follower of Jesus Christ. You
can't do that without God, but
with
God all things are
possible. With
the power of God flowing through
you, you can stand against the
devil. Look at what the Apostle
Paul writes in Ephesians
6:11: Also
consider 1 Corinthians
10:13: Don't
ever get the idea that you have
this kind of power in and of
yourself. This is a supernatural
thing. You must remain constantly
and keenly aware of your need for
God -- and He will be there. Look
at 2 Corinthians 1:21: This
isn't something we do by trying
hard. It is something God does in
us, as we rely upon Him and call
out to Him for power to
stand. In
addition to the power to change
and the power to stand, staying
power gives us the power to
persevere
-- to hang in there when things
get tough. Paul
asks an important question in
Romans 8:35 that has bearing on
this: Just
about anything that could happen
to us in live would fall into one
of those categories. He's asking,
"Can the stuff that the world
throws at you separate you from
your Source of life? Can it pull
you away from the power of God?"
He gives us an answer in Romans
8:37: Most
of us have lived long enough to
realize that life often hands us
problems we can't handle in our
own power. Indeed, unless there
is some power beyond yourself to
help you, life will crush
you. I
discovered long ago that life
apart from God isn't much more
than a terminal disease. We
grunt, groan, and struggle
through its hardships -- and then
we die. But
when we are grafted into the vine
of true life that reached out to
us from heaven -- Jesus Christ --
we can begin to draw life and
health from God. It is only then
that we can live successfully in
a fallen world. When
you begin to draw life from God,
you start to understand that your
life has purpose and meaning,
that there is a reason for which
God gave you life -- a reason
rooted in God and that has
eternal significance. Purpose
in your life builds hope -- and
hope and purpose working together
will give you the power to
persevere, to be more than a
conqueror in the face of all of
life's problems, contradictions,
and pain. At
age 36 I was a successful man --
that is, I was successful in
business, but a failure at
living. I failed at living
because I had drifted from what I
knew to be true, and as a result
I lost touch with God. In
the course of two years, my
first-born -- a daughter -- died
at age 8; my marriage broke up;
and my best friend died at age
43. I had no power within me to
deal with the tragedies I faced.
I had no energy to go on. I
wanted to die. I had no sense
that things could change. I felt
I would live in misery for the
rest of my life. Then
Jesus came -- and everything
changed. I stand before you today
a reasonably sane and happy man
-- and I owe it all to Jesus. I
gave Jesus permission to change
the way I saw things. I asked him
to change who I was -- and
through the changes wrought in me
by God's grace, I received power
to cope with life. Through
God's grace, we can have staying
power.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
Staying
power
(Sixth
in the series, Opening Ourselves to
God)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
The first couple of weeks, we
talked about "opening our lives
to God's love." This is the entry
level of relationship with God.
We learned that we
can love God because He first
loved
us.
We also learned that God then
desires to use our lives as
conduits
of His
love,
through which His love can flow
to the world around
us.
In
this
series
God's
power today?
One of the speakers made this
comment: "There is a two-part
issue underlying all of our
conversation and debate over the
things of God. First, is God's
power available to us today? And,
if so, is it sufficient to change
human life and human
institutions?"
My
message and my preaching were
not with wise and persuasive
words, but with a
demonstration of the Spirit's
power, so that your faith
might not rest on men's
wisdom, but on God's power.
I
am not ashamed of the gospel,
because it is the power of God
for the salvation of everyone
who believes: first for the
Jew, then for the Gentile.
If
the gospel is "the power of God,"
-- as the Bible says it is --
then when we
believe
it, receive
it, and
seek
to live by
it
that power becomes present and
real to us.
Power
to changeJesus
looked at them and said, "With
man this is impossible, but
with God all things are
possible."
"For
nothing is impossible with
God."
Power
to standPut
on the full armor of God so
that you can take your stand
against the devil's
schemes.
No
temptation has seized you
except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will
not let you be tempted beyond
what you can bear. But when
you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you
can stand up under it.
Now
it is God who makes both us
and you stand firm in
Christ.
Power
to persevereWho
shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall trouble
or hardship or persecution or
famine or nakedness or danger
or sword?
No,
in all these things we are
more than conquerors through
him who loved us.
A
personal example
God's
grace empowers us for life. It
gives us the strength, courage,
power, and hope to live
victoriously, regardless of the
difficulty of the circumstances
we may have to face.
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020512a: Staying
Power.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado