Sermon

Christ Is Omnipotent | February 8, 2026 AM

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

  4. or contact us at mylibertybaptist.org or just

  5. look us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's word will be a blessing to you.

  7. You would turn your Bibles, please, to Matthew chapter #28

  8. Matthew chapter 28. And once you have done so, if

    Matthew 28 chapter mention

  9. you put your ribbon in your Bible over at Ephesians chapter

  10. #1 we'll be going back and forth between these two texts.

  11. You want to remain in Matthew chapter 28, but we will also be

    Matthew 28 chapter mention

  12. going to Ephesians chapter 1. So you can put your marker

    Ephesians 1 chapter mention

  13. there, and then we'll be going back and forth.

  14. If you don't have a marker in your Bible, grab that envelope

  15. that's right in front of you can put that right in there as well.

  16. Just make sure, you know, you give it back when you're done.

  17. You know, it's a just, you know, put it back in the, the, the

  18. rack there. But if you need to do that,

  19. you're certainly more than welcome to do so.

  20. We do have another special this morning that I'd like to give to

  21. you. You didn't know that there was

  22. going to be one more special, did you?

  23. But I'm going to give it to you right now because I think it

  24. goes along really well with the message.

  25. Are you ready? Oh, Diane's not up here.

  26. So I guess I'm have to do it by myself.

  27. Here's goat. Are you ready?

  28. My God is so big, so strong and so mighty.

  29. There's nothing my God cannot do.

  30. There you go. All right, man, I felt really

  31. exposed here. And Justin help me out there.

  32. The mountains are his, the rivers are his.

  33. The stars are his handiwork too. My God is so great, so strong

  34. and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do

  35. for you. All right, that's pretty good.

  36. All right, Well, I didn't say. I mean, I'm pretty good, but I'm

  37. just saying that's the special right there.

  38. You know, that's the kind of song that the ladies would teach

  39. in the back and probably do teach to the young people in our

  40. Sunday school and our junior church.

  41. And you know, we teach this to the kids and they really believe

  42. it that our God is so great, He's so big, so strong and so

  43. mighty. There's nothing my God cannot

  44. do. And I will tell you that those

  45. children back there, particularly the ones who have

  46. called upon Jesus Christ their Savior with childlike faith,

  47. they really believe that. I'm so thankful that they have

  48. that belief. But something happens from when

  49. we're that age and to when we get to this age where

  50. theologically we believe. What I just saying

  51. theologically, we believe the truth of those words, but yet we

  52. don't truly show it by the way we live our lives that God is

  53. omnipotent, that God is all powerful.

  54. This morning I believe there's a disconnect between how big

  55. people God or how big people believe.

  56. People believe God's big. This is not a good start.

  57. This is why you don't sing before you start preaching.

  58. People believe God's big, but don't live like God's big.

  59. So what's the disconnect? And how can we make sure we live

  60. our lives in a way that is theologically correct, that

  61. Christ is, Here's our word this week, omnipotent.

  62. Would you please stand for the reading of God's Word?

  63. We're in Matthew chapter 28. We'll begin reading verse #18.

    Matthew 28 chapter mention

  64. It says, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All

  65. power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

  66. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the

  67. name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,

  68. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded

  69. you. And lo, I'm with you alway even

  70. unto the end of the world. And all God's children can say,

  71. Amen. Heavenly Father, be with us this

  72. morning as we look at this text. Lord, help me to be able to say

  73. what needs to be said about this issue of Christ in His power.

  74. Lord, thank you for his power. Thank you for your power, the

  75. power of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

  76. Help us to not just know it, but to live it.

  77. Help us to understand it as best as our finite minds can, but

  78. then to act it out in our day-to-day lives.

  79. We thank you for it all and we ask your blessing upon it in

  80. Jesus name, Amen. Thank you may be seated.

  81. Psalm 147 verse 5 says great is our Lord and of great power.

    Psalms 147:5

  82. His understanding is infinite. There's a lot of powerful

  83. things, a lot of powerful forces in this world.

  84. A wildfire consumes everything in its path.

  85. You've ever seen the destructive nature of a wildfire?

  86. You know of its great power. We talked this morning in Sunday

  87. school about the power of a volcano.

  88. It releases the force of the Earth's interior, erupting with

  89. molten rock and pressure capable of burying cities and altering

  90. geography. A hurricane can unleash winds of

  91. sustained nature and storm surge over vast regions, moving

  92. oceans, destroying structures with relentless organized power.

  93. We even look outside of our world and consider the power of

  94. even a supernova, an explosion so violent that in a few seconds

  95. it releases more energy than our sun, lighting up space and

  96. tearing the star apart. Those are all powerful forces,

  97. whether it's a wildfire of volcano, a hurricane, or yes,

  98. even a supernova. But yet none of these are more

  99. powerful than God. Hebrews chapter one verse one

  100. through 3 says God, who had sundry times and in divers

  101. manners spake in times past, under the fathers, by the

  102. prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,

  103. whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made

  104. the world's, Who being the brightness of his glory and the

  105. express image of his Person, and hear this upholding all things

  106. by the word of his power. What does Jesus Christ do?

  107. He upholds all things by the word of his power.

  108. You can consider a wildfire, you can consider a volcano, a

  109. hurricane, all of the stars that you find in the sky and all of

  110. their power simultaneously is upheld by the very power of the

  111. word of Jesus Christ. The Triune God is not just

  112. powerful, He is the source of all power.

  113. Now let me run that by you one more time.

  114. He is not just powerful, He is the source of all power.

  115. He is the power plant, if you will.

  116. But unlike a power plant today that would need a source of

  117. energy to be able to have it produce power, to be able to

  118. convert that energy from one thing into something else, He is

  119. the source of power. He is the very essence.

  120. There is nothing that needs to power up our Lord.

  121. He needs no batteries. He doesn't need to be plugged

  122. in. He is the very source in

  123. Genesis. Reality as we know it is spoken

  124. into existence by 4 words. Let there be light in

  125. revelation. All the enemies of God amassed

  126. upon the entire world will fall in a moment slain, as the Living

  127. Word returns with the words. King of Kings and Lord of Lords

  128. is upon him. He shows his power in Genesis.

  129. He manifests his power. Revelation and the other 64

  130. books in the middle all show the great power of God and that

  131. power will also be manifested for all eternity as well.

  132. Before we get deeper into our text today, we need to ask

  133. ourselves this question. I mentioned that the title of

  134. the message is Christ is Omnipotent, but what does

  135. omnipotent mean? It's a word certainly that

  136. theologically we use sometimes, but what does it mean if Christ

  137. is omnipotent? Well, it's really easy for us to

  138. just break this down into two different parts and understand

  139. each part of the word. The word Omni means all these.

  140. There are many Greek theological terms that use the word Omni.

  141. In fact, there's three that are often used in churches to

  142. describe who God is. Omniscient being all present, or

  143. rather omnipresent being all present, omniscient being all

  144. knowing and then omnipotent. So all is Omni but potent.

  145. What does that mean? Well that word potent literally

  146. means power. When you consider a medication,

  147. what is its potency? That means what is its power?

  148. And so as we consider who God is, he is omnipotent, mean, he

  149. is all powerful. He's not partially powerful.

  150. He is not at sometimes powerful in all times, in all ways, God

  151. is powerful. And again, that ought to make

  152. all God's children say Amen. Now this is the place in our

  153. message where we want to kind of look at our text and not just

  154. look at the Word. OK, we have an understanding of

  155. the Word. We saw power was in our text

  156. here just a few moments ago in this telling of the Great

  157. Commission by Jesus Christ. And in verse 18 we do see the

  158. word power. And Jesus came and spake unto

  159. them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

  160. But we ask ourselves this question, why is Jesus talking

  161. about his power? Why is this important as he's

  162. about to give? What is the Great Commission?

  163. Now I will say that the newer versions that you'll find out

  164. there of the Bible will take the word power and actually take it

  165. out of Scripture and will replace it with the word

  166. authority. Now this is a grave error

  167. because there's a difference between having the word power

  168. there and the word authority there.

  169. Some people have authority but don't have power.

  170. You ever had a boss? Maybe I should stop right there.

  171. You're at a boss that had authority but had no power.

  172. I remember when I worked both at the jewelry stores in college

  173. and Gordon's and at Kay Jewelers, and both of them

  174. required that we were to get a credit application today, that

  175. from our customers, we were to have someone to sign up for a

  176. Gordon's credit card or a Kay's credit card.

  177. And at the end of the day, in both companies, we had to call

  178. over to the Home Office to our district manager and we had to

  179. tell them amongst our sales statistics how many credit

  180. applications we had taken during that day.

  181. And I remember this was not something that I like to do.

  182. What does it naturally come into conversation and say, oh, by the

  183. way, would you like to get into debt with this ring?

  184. It's not really something that I want to talk about, but I had to

  185. because it was part of it. I remember for a while I really

  186. struggled. I had to make those calls.

  187. But you know what I found out after a while?

  188. I had to report those numbers, but the district manager never

  189. did anything about it. Never called back and said, hey,

  190. you need to do more. Never said you're going to be

  191. under suspension. Never said, hey, if you don't

  192. get this right, you're not going to be of a job.

  193. I found out that this district manager had a lot of authority

  194. but didn't exactly have the power that I thought that they

  195. had. The Greek word for power here is

  196. exousia, and it means the power to do something, and it was a

  197. technical term that was used in courts.

  198. Just the word power alone gives the connotation of authority.

  199. It's not that authority is not here, but if you just put the

  200. word authority there, it removes the very fact that Jesus Christ

  201. has authority but has the power to back it up.

  202. Jesus Christ does have all authority today, but He also has

  203. the power to be able to do that which He has authority for in

  204. the 1st place. And there are many that walk

  205. around and pretend to have authority these days.

  206. There are many who walk around and are paper tigers.

  207. But no, Jesus is no paper tiger. Jesus is no paper champion.

  208. No, He is the one who has authority and has the power to

  209. back it up. It's why it's important that we

  210. see here that all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

  211. Charles Spurgeon said power in the hands of some people is

  212. dangerous, but power in the hands of Christ is blessed.

  213. Oh, let him have all power, Spurgeon says.

  214. Let him do what he will with it, for he cannot do anything but

  215. that which is right and just and true and good.

  216. There is no abuse of power with our Savior.

  217. There is no lack of power with our Savior.

  218. There is no lack of authority with our Savior.

  219. He is the one who has all power. Now, as we look at verse #18 you

  220. might be bothered by or concerned by the phrase that

  221. immediately follows the word power.

  222. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

  223. Did you notice that as we were reading it?

  224. And maybe that bothers you a little bit because you think,

  225. well, does that mean Jesus didn't have power?

  226. And now at this moment, he did have power.

  227. Well, I'm going to set your fears at rest before we get into

  228. what it means here in just a moment.

  229. You do understand that Jesus Christ has always had power,

  230. that it wasn't just at this moment, that power had been

  231. conferred upon Him by the Father that we already mentioned a few

  232. moments ago. Hebrews chapter one verse 3.

  233. But also consider John one verse 3.

  234. All things were made by Him and without him, without anything

  235. made that was made. Jesus was an active part of

  236. creation, by the way, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all active

  237. within that of creation. What about Colossians chapter 2,

    Colossians 2:9

  238. verses 9 and 10 for Colossians, pray for your

  239. pastor, Amen. Pray for your pastor's wife.

  240. Amen. Colossians 29 and 10.

  241. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,

  242. and ye are complete in him which is the head of all principality

  243. and power. Which looked at that in Sunday

  244. school a few moments ago. Revelation 1 verses 1718.

  245. Fear not, I am the 1st and the last.

  246. I am he that liveth was dead, and behold, I am alive

  247. forevermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and death.

  248. No, you do not need to be concerned that Jesus Christ was

  249. just conferred power when He came to this world.

  250. You do not have to be concerned that Jesus Christ was conferred

  251. power as He's giving the Great Commission in Matthew chapter

    Matthew 28 chapter mention

  252. 28. Jesus has always been powerful

  253. because Father and Son and Holy Ghost did not just appear in

  254. Genesis 11. They have always been and they

  255. have always been powerful. So that's what's not being said.

  256. So the question is what is being said?

  257. Because it does say all power is given unto Him.

  258. You'll give it unto me in heaven and earth.

  259. And the answer is important for us to be able to understand how

  260. this deals with ourselves. And remember when I told you to

  261. put your ribbon there in Ephesians chapter #1 Why don't

  262. you go ahead and turn there now like a waste any time we're

  263. going to write to Ephesians chapter 1 and pick up in verse

    Ephesians 1 chapter mention

  264. #17 But the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of

  265. glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation

  266. in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being

  267. enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling,

  268. and what the riches of His glory, of the glory of His

  269. inheritance in the Saints. And what is the exceeding

  270. greatness of His power to us Word who believe according to

  271. the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when

  272. He raised Him from the dead. Now stop there for a moment.

  273. You say it's saying that the Father raised Christ from the

  274. dead. And the answer is yes, that the

  275. Father did raise Christ from the dead.

  276. But you know who else raised Christ from the dead?

  277. Christ. Why would you say that, Pastor?

  278. Well, Jesus made clear in John chapter 10.

    John 10 chapter mention

  279. He says I lay my life down and I pick it back up again.

  280. But it's also the Holy Spirit who is involved in the

  281. resurrection of Christ, as we find in Romans chapter #8 as

  282. well. It seems to be that Father and

  283. Son and Holy Ghost were all actively involved in the

  284. resurrection of Jesus Christ. So don't be concerned there when

  285. it says He raised him from the dead, meaning the Father that it

  286. was Father, Son, and Holy Ghost all together.

  287. We're not talking about 3 different gods here.

  288. We're talking about the same God far above principality, verse

  289. 21. Far above all principality and

  290. power and might and dominion, and every name that is named,

  291. not only in this world, but also in the world to come.

  292. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the

  293. head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the

  294. fullness of him that filleth All in all.

  295. Back in our text, when Jesus says all power is given unto me

  296. in heaven and in earth, what he is saying is he's imparting some

  297. of His final words to the church.

  298. And yes, he is speaking to the church here.

  299. Why is that important if he is just speaking to the disciples?

  300. As soon as the disciples are gone, the Commission is gone as

  301. well. He's speaking to the church

  302. which he founded in the Gospels when He called His disciples.

  303. That church which had already formed that church which He

  304. spoke of in Matthew chapter 16. In that Church of which he spoke

    Matthew 16 chapter mention

  305. of in Matthew chapter 18, that church that had already held the

    Matthew 18 chapter mention

  306. ordinances. That church had already had a

  307. business meeting in Acts chapter one.

  308. That church in Acts chapter 2, when 3000 people got saved, they

    Acts 2 chapter mention

  309. were baptized and added unto them being the church.

  310. Jesus is talking to His church there on that mountainside as

  311. it's about to go, and he says all power is given unto me in

  312. heaven and earth, meaning as I'm about to depart from you,

  313. understand that I am the power, I am the authority of the

  314. church. And it says it right there and

  315. has put all things under his feet and gave him to behead over

  316. all things to the church. What he's saying here is I have

  317. been assigned to be the head of the church.

  318. No, this shouldn't bother us here this morning.

  319. Just as it's one of his tasks, as the Holy Spirit has a task of

  320. being a comforter, and the Holy Spirit has the task of being our

  321. guide and teacher. He is saying in go back to

  322. Matthew chapter #28 leave your ribbon there, but go back to

  323. Matthew chapter 28. All power.

    Matthew 28 chapter mention

  324. Nobody went back there, but that's OK.

  325. All power. You think I can't watch you and

  326. hear you, but I hear nothing's happening.

  327. All right. All power is given unto me in

  328. heaven and earth saying this. All power is given to me to be

  329. the head, the chief cornerstone of the church.

  330. It's not that he wasn't powerful before, but he is exerting his

  331. authority over the church. This is his church.

  332. Liberty Baptist Church belongs to him.

  333. Every Bible preaching church that preaches the truth is His

  334. church. And he says all power is given

  335. unto me in heaven and earth. And he says it's important that

  336. you know this. Why is it important?

  337. You know? This text we're looking at in

  338. Matthew 28 is commonly called the Great Commission.

  339. The Great Commission is given in different forms in Matthew,

  340. Mark, Luke, John, and the beginning of the book of Acts.

  341. Perhaps Matthew is the one that we quote the most, but there's a

  342. word in verse #19 that's so vitally important.

  343. And if we quote the Great Commission, as I often do, it's

  344. a word. Sometimes I accidentally omit,

  345. and it's the word therefore. Now I want to help you with a

  346. principle of Bible study this morning.

  347. If you see a word therefore in your Bible study, you need to go

  348. back and see what the therefore is.

  349. Therefore, look, I know I can have a coughing fit every 5

  350. minutes or so, but I'm not crazy about this, OK?

  351. If you see the word, therefore you want to see what the

  352. therefore is. Therefore why is it there?

  353. Well, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth.

  354. Therefore go ye into all the world, teach all nations, rather

  355. baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of

  356. the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever

  357. I've commanded you. Lo, I'm with you alway even unto

  358. the end of the world. Amen.

  359. He's saying because I am the authority of the church,

  360. therefore I'm telling you, I want you to go.

  361. And as I tell you to go, this is important.

  362. As I tell you to go, understand when you go, you will have

  363. power. We're having a soul winning

  364. conference this week. What's that about?

  365. We're trying to teach people how to be able to win people to

  366. Christ. To be able to tell friends and

  367. neighbors, loved ones, strangers about Jesus Christ.

  368. This is the task of which He's called us to do.

  369. How incredibly cruel would our Savior be to give us a mission

  370. and then not give us the tools that are needed to be able to

  371. accomplish the mission? I mean, maybe you've been in

  372. that situation before where a boss asked you to fulfill a

  373. project, but then didn't give you the tools that you need to

  374. fulfill the project, and then you got in trouble when you

  375. didn't do the project. It was really the person that

  376. was the authority. It was the problem.

  377. Pretty quiet. So I guess that's happened to

  378. many people here. Or just waiting for me to call

  379. off again. I don't know.

  380. We could be one of the two. How cruel would our Savior be?

  381. They go and give the components the Great Commission when people

  382. to Christ, baptize them, disciple them.

  383. That's distilling the Great Commission right there.

  384. And what do we disciple them to do?

  385. Well, to live a victorious Christian life, to come more

  386. like Christ, and also to reach other people as well so that it

  387. can continue to perpetuate. How cruel would our Savior be to

  388. say, I want you to do it, but you're on your own.

  389. But that would be pretty lousy. But First Thessalonians chapter

  390. #5 and I mentioned this last week, I believe it says faithful

  391. is he who calleth you who also will do it.

  392. He does. He doesn't call you to do things

  393. of which he will not equip you to do.

  394. And God as the authority, Jesus Christ as the authority of the

  395. church says this. I'm going to send you, But as I

  396. send you, I will give you, what's the word power?

  397. So you think that you can't share your faith with someone

  398. else, But he says I'll give you power.

  399. You think you don't know what to do, but he says I'll give you

  400. power. You think nobody will listen to

  401. you because it's 2026, so I'll give you power.

  402. You think the message isn't palatable anymore?

  403. But sure, you received it, but how are you supposed to give it

  404. to someone else? But he says He will give you

  405. power. Why is this important?

  406. Because this is His church. God didn't just authorize us to

  407. reach the community, but He empowers us to be able to reach

  408. this community as well. There is no other organization

  409. that you can find on this earth that is well equipped to be able

  410. to reach the World like the local church.

  411. Oh, there's other groups that are out there, but the Boys and

  412. Girls Club can't do it. A A can't do it.

  413. The Rotary Club can't do it. No town hall can do it.

  414. You say, pastor, are you saying those are all bad people?

  415. I'm saying that they are not authorized and equipped to be

  416. able to reach this world like you and I are, to reach this

  417. community for Christ. But go back to Ephesians for

  418. just a moment, because I can see this doesn't really excite you

  419. yet. But be honest, be honest.

  420. It's OK. We're not.

  421. We're not excited about it. Maybe that's good.

  422. Belinda's, that's good. I like that.

  423. That's a new believer right there, Amen.

  424. I love that. That's good, That's good.

  425. And we need to be back to that, Amen.

  426. But I think in some ways, maybe that seems like it's kind of a

  427. pie in the sky. Well, this deals with the

  428. church, This deals with Liberty Baptist Church.

  429. Maybe you even think it just deals with me as the pastor.

  430. But may I remind you that the pastor is not Liberty Baptist

  431. Church? May I remind you that this

  432. pastor will not always be the pastor of Liberty Baptist

  433. Church. The pastor?

  434. You can't say that. Do you think I'll live forever?

  435. What I'm saying is this. The Chief Cornerstone is not a

  436. pastor. If it is on a faulty foundation,

  437. Chief Cornerstone don't want the power and the authority is Jesus

  438. Christ. But let's go back to Ephesians

  439. chapter #1 go back to verse #19 and what is the exceeding

  440. greatness of His power to to who?

  441. Usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power.

  442. We'll stop there for just a moment.

  443. If the church is given power to be able to fill the Commission,

  444. who makes up the church? Usens.

  445. It sounds kind of King James does it, but it's not.

  446. It's South, it's southern. He has given us the command,

  447. which means this. He has given us power as well.

  448. And you see what it says, because of his mighty power,

  449. that he has given us power as well.

  450. It stands to reason because of the Church has power, we make up

  451. the church. Do you realize that the power of

  452. God Almighty abides inside of you today?

  453. No, I'm not talking about some weird kind of doctrine here this

  454. morning that the Holy Spirit, who is God Almighty, the Spirit

  455. of Christ, abides in you today. And it's not just the fact that

  456. we have been given the Commission and empowered to go

  457. do the Great Commission, which we have been, but that power

  458. also extends to every part of our life as well as we try to

  459. live the Christian life. You can't live the Christian

  460. life on your own. You don't have the ability to do

  461. that which God has called you to do on your own as a believer.

  462. But it's Christ in you, the hope of glory, who can help us to be

  463. more like Christ. If you're struggling with

  464. habitual sin, what do we see? That the power of Christ abides

  465. on you, and you can break the bonds of habitual sin, not

  466. because of you, but because of Jesus Christ.

  467. God has given you the power to overcome a terrible past.

  468. God has given you the power to overcome fear.

  469. God has given you the power to overcome the situation that you

  470. don't know how you can untangle yourself from.

  471. God has given you the power to overcome the emotions that seem

  472. to run your life instead of being controlled by the Spirit.

  473. That power is within you. That power is not you, but it is

  474. within you. And for some reason we act like

  475. we're powerless, toothless, and sometimes even gumless.

  476. There's nothing we can do. And yes, half of that is true.

  477. There is nothing you can do except to throw yourself at the

  478. mercy of the one who saved you and say, I can't overcome sin,

  479. but I know by your grace you can help me on my own.

  480. I've tried to do what Christ has told me to do, but I keep

  481. failing. But you can help me because that

  482. power that belongs to him has also been given to me so I can

  483. reach a lost world for Christ, but so that I also live more for

  484. Christ in my day-to-day life. Are you tired of trying to be a

  485. good Christian and missing out? Let me change that.

  486. You are tired of trying to be a good Christian and missing out.

  487. Oh, now you agreed. OK, I just, I had to change the

  488. way I said it. Apparently you're making me work

  489. today. I'll tell you you're tired of

  490. it. Maybe the problem is that you're

  491. the one that's trying to do it and it's not Christ.

  492. Where's the power? He has all power.

  493. It's been given to him and it manifests itself in the church

  494. and also manifests itself in the Christian who makes up the

  495. church. And we should understand that

  496. that power is great. First John 4 verse four year of

  497. God little children and have overcome them because greater is

  498. he that is in you than he that is in the world.

  499. I will say this that power does not just well up inside of you

  500. because of who you are. You must be born again.

  501. You must know Jesus Christ as your savior force whosoever is

  502. born of God. First John 5/4 For whosoever is

  503. born of God overcometh the world.

  504. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our

  505. faith, that's where it starts. So maybe today you feel like

  506. you, you have no power. Could it be that you're not

  507. saved? No, I'm not trying to say if you

  508. have no power, you are not saved.

  509. But I'm, I'm saying today that maybe you have never even taken

  510. that step in your life, that you recognize that you're a Sinner,

  511. that you recognize there's a real judgment to come, that hell

  512. is real, that the lake of fire will you abide forever is real.

  513. Yet Jesus Christ bore the penalty on the cross so you can

  514. be saved. But then after that, what do we

  515. see? If we're not careful, we can

  516. still live very powerless lives before the Lord.

  517. But I say this today, lift your head, believer.

  518. The power of an omnipotent Christ has been granted unto

  519. you. I'm not trying to be weird about

  520. that. I'm saying this.

  521. That power has been given to you.

  522. We don't have time to go there, but you go to Acts chapter 1 and

    Acts 1 chapter mention

  523. we see that the power was given to us to fulfill the Great

  524. Commission. All power is given unto you to

  525. do what? To go to Jerusalem, Judea and

  526. Samaria and the other most parts of the earth.

  527. That God has given us power to fulfill the gospel, but He's

  528. also given us the power to be able to live the life of a

  529. person who can go and give the gospel in the 1st place.

  530. So I can't do it. Well, through Him you can.

  531. I can't beat Sin through him, you can.

  532. I failed too many times. Through him you can do right?

  533. Yes. Through him, in your own power,

  534. no. Through him, yes.

  535. So what do we need to do today? Let me give you 2 very practical

  536. ways to help you here this morning and we're almost done.

  537. What do you need to do when it comes to this issue of power?

  538. First of all, number one, check your source.

  539. Check your source for power. You know, if I was to have an

  540. extension cord up here and I neglected to actually bring one

  541. up here, but Dave, please don't go grab one, all right?

  542. He would probably go and grab one for me.

  543. He probably unplugged the computer back there and bring it

  544. to me. And so we don't want to do that.

  545. But if I was to have a power cord, an extension cord up here

  546. today, imagine that I had a 10 foot cord and I had the one end

  547. and I had the other end and I put them together and I'd say

  548. go. You say, well, why?

  549. Why is this working? Well?

  550. Because it's plugged into itself and no power can emanate from

  551. itself. It could only be a conduit from

  552. a power source to something that needs power.

  553. And I found a lot of Christians do, a lot of Christians are

  554. plugged into themselves for power.

  555. And you know what? They got nothing.

  556. Why do we say you need to read your Bible every day to plug

  557. into the power? Why do we say that you need to

  558. pray not just every day, but every hour?

  559. I need the every hour the song goes well, why?

  560. Well, because we need to plug into the power.

  561. Why do we need to meditate on God's word?

  562. Why do we read a Bible verse? And sometimes I think we just

  563. get to the point where we say pastor says read your Bible,

  564. read your Bible, read your Bible.

  565. Why are we reading our Bible? So you can check it off the

  566. list. No, so it affects the rest of

  567. your day. So did you find a verse that

  568. really helped you? And maybe you set an alarm on

  569. your phone that goes off every couple hours and that verse pops

  570. up, you type it in and it's just a reminder stop.

  571. Selah. The Psalm says meditate on this.

  572. Think about it for a little bit, or else we get to the point

  573. where we're just the independent Baptist say, well, I'm.

  574. Going to read my Bible today Why?

  575. Because I got to read my Bible today.

  576. Why So I can read my Bible today?

  577. Why so I can read my Bible today like.

  578. That don't make any sense. I want to read my Bible today so

  579. I can be like Christ. We'll plug into the power.

  580. Too many believers that I've seen, they plugged in

  581. themselves. You know why?

  582. They don't want to go to church. They plugged in themselves.

  583. You know, I found him. When I'm plugged into him, I

  584. want to be here. I don't make excuses not to be

  585. here. I make excuses to be here.

  586. Why? Because I'm plugged in, right?

  587. But I think a lot of Christians have trouble with the source,

  588. but they also have trouble with sustainability.

  589. Be this. They'll do it for a little while

  590. and then unplug. They'll do it for a little while

  591. and then unplug. Like in 1989, as a young lad

  592. living in Tampa, we had a disaster, a state of emergency.

  593. And that state of emergency where temperature sustained at

  594. 32° for about a week. Yeah.

  595. Yeah. It, it, it is, this is real.

  596. In fact, I want to make sure that my memories of this were

  597. not incorrect. And so I looked it up this week.

  598. It's. It's all online.

  599. So, you know, it's true. But anyway, 1989 what happened

  600. was so many people were using their heat pumps and that's what

  601. people would use in Florida still do to be able to heat

  602. their homes because it's so rare to need to heat.

  603. And the electrical grid was not prepared for the amount of

  604. people using their heat pumps for three days or four days.

  605. From around December 23rd until the 25th or 26th, depending on

  606. where you were in Florida, there were rolling brownouts or

  607. outright blackouts. Meaning this you had to be able

  608. to use your power for a few hours and then it would turn off

  609. and about 3 hours later it would turn back on.

  610. Do you know how hard it is to cook a Christmas Turkey?

  611. I remember my mom trying to, as soon as the power went on, cook

  612. everything. And you can do that except for

  613. the Turkey. You got to pull it back out.

  614. The Turkey had to go back in and out, I believe at least once

  615. because of the rolling Browns and nothing worked, nothing made

  616. sense. Christmas, you get these gifts.

  617. Oh, they got to plug in. There's no battery, you got to

  618. plug it in. Oh, I get to play it for two.

  619. Oh no, I'm done. Let me tell you, little 7 year

  620. old Adam was very disappointed at that Christmas because of the

  621. rolling brownouts. You can't do anything.

  622. How can you do anything like that?

  623. You do it for a minute, you stop.

  624. You do it for a minute and stop. Does that sound familiar to

  625. anybody here? You know, I'm not talking about

  626. your power at your house. I'm talking about your Christian

  627. life. You're really excited about

  628. church for a while. I think you're not.

  629. You're really excited about reading your Bible for a while,

  630. and you're not. You're really excited about holy

  631. living, about doing right, about the things you watch, the things

  632. you listen to. Well, then you're not.

  633. You're really excited about listening to the Spirit and then

  634. you're not, you know, listen, I understand that the Christian

  635. life says peaks and valleys. There are times that we do well

  636. and there are times that we struggle a little bit and that

  637. is natural. I do want to recognize that.

  638. But I would also say there is an issue with sustainability where

  639. we willing to plug in, but then something bad happens and we

  640. unplug. Can I help you with something?

  641. If you're struggling in your family, the place you need to be

  642. is here, not away from here. If you are struggling with

  643. personal sin, what you need to do is not watch more TV to dull

  644. the pain, not listen to more podcasts or more music.

  645. You know, unplug it all and get in your Bible.

  646. You know, how is it strange that we could watch a 2 hour movie

  647. and not even blink, but we asked someone to read their Bible for

  648. two hours? It would be considered cruel and

  649. unusual punishment. No, I'm serious.

  650. But if you're struggling and you start a Bible study, I'm going

  651. to read this. I see where this verse follows,

  652. and I'm going to go here. I'm going to think about I'm

  653. going to stop. I'm going to pray for a while.

  654. I'm going to get a notebook and I'm going to write this.

  655. I'm going to do that. Do you know how incredibly

  656. helped you could be? And just that one sitting, let

  657. alone sustaining Say, pastor, you saying we OK, we're not

  658. supposed to do anything else but it.

  659. You know, I'm saying that when we tap into the power, not the

  660. power within, you give the power to be a champion.

  661. I have the power to wreck my life and everything else around

  662. me, but through Christ, I have the power to be able to live

  663. like him. Not through some performance,

  664. not like showing off in some pharisaical way, but by saying I

  665. need to be plugged in the source and it's not me.

  666. This is not going to work. I got to be plugged into him,

  667. the power source, the originator of power.

  668. But also I need some sustain, sustainability.

  669. I can't unplug and replug and unplug and replug and unplug and

  670. replug. Now listen, if you unplug and

  671. you get away from the Lord for a while, don't take what I'm

  672. saying as well, don't even replug, what's the point?

  673. No, I'm serious. There's some people who feel

  674. like that in their discouragement.

  675. And who do you think is whispering that in their ear?

  676. The Holy Spirit saying, don't come back to me.

  677. That's Satan friend. That's what that is.

  678. But stay plugged into him. And when you start to feel like,

  679. I don't know that this is what I want to do, ignore your

  680. feelings. Ignore your feelings.

  681. I'm thankful God created feelings because we can feel

  682. things, but those feelings when they guide our life, will guide

  683. you right into the wall. Don't be guided by your

  684. feelings. Be guided by faith.

  685. Faith is this. I don't know that I want to read

  686. my Bible today. You say pastor, people say that

  687. if you haven't yet, you will. This pastor says it.

  688. Sometimes I don't know if I want to read my Bible.

  689. I got too much to do. I'm too busy or sometimes it's

  690. the night and I realize I didn't even read it today.

  691. It does happen sometimes I'm not I'm I'm not I don't like it.

  692. I'm trying to be transparent with you, but the best thing

  693. that you can do is to understand I have plug into Christ.

  694. I stay plugged into Christ and if for some reason I unplug,

  695. I'll run back in and plug in as quickly as possible.

  696. Are you tired of living a powerless Christian life?

  697. Says right here. The power was given to the

  698. church. We could be a powerful force.

  699. Even though we're a small group, say pastor.

  700. We're a growing church. We are a growing church, but

  701. compared to some, we are a small group.

  702. Compared to a town of 25,000 we are a small group.

  703. Do you realize it was a Church of 120 in Acts chapter #1 that

  704. by the end of the book of Acts that turn the world upside down?

  705. Why? Because those people were so

  706. great? Who?

  707. You mean like Peter and Paul who had baggage but God used them?

  708. Why? Because it was him.

  709. If God could use a man who says I don't know who Jesus is and

  710. cursed at people for saying I don't know who Jesus is.

  711. If God could use someone who had the baggage of the apostle Paul

  712. who tried to destroy the churches and then become the

  713. apostle to them. If God could use them, you think

  714. he can use you? Why?

  715. Because it's not about you, it's about his power.

  716. Hey, plug in the right source, stay plugged in.

  717. Sustainability. It's all about him.

  718. He is omnipotent. Thank you for listening to the

  719. sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.

  720. If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we

  721. can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at

  722. [email protected]. Or you can visit us this Sunday

  723. at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.

  724. May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.