#5 The “Names of God”
Series
"JEHOVAH-SHADDAI!"
(The All Sufficient & All Powerful One!")
TEXT: Exodus
6:2-3;
INTRO: The claims
for being powerful are many today:
* Excedrin claims that it
has extra strength! (So do
others!)
* Comet cleanser is the
“powerful one!”
* Cheer has more
whitening power than all other brands.
*
* Superman is more
powerful than a locomotive.
* Hefty is stronger than
the 1 or 2 ply garbage bags.
* Pollident is more
powerful than coffee stains or blueberries.
* Nations are scrambling
to become “nuclear powers” so they can be thought of as “all powerful” and
feared.
YET: No matter how or what
claims to be “all powerful,” the best they can claim is to be only “more
powerful!” They still all fall
short of God’s “all powerful” status!
PROP.
SENT: The scripture tells us
that God and God alone is the “almighty one,” the “all
powerful” over all things, in Him we are victorious and
strong!
I. POWER OVER PROBLEMS Ex. 6:2-3 James 1:13-15
A. Problem
of Sin
1. Romans
2. This is man’s greatest
problem!
a. Problem of food or energy is only
temporary.
b. Eternal vs. temporal
problems.
c. Food, energy, etc. affect only the
now; sin affects eternity as well as the now!
3. If sin was conquered we could also
conquer the other problems that are temporal!
4. When the sin issue is dealt with in
our heart through God’s power many of the things that once held us in bondage
can finally change because God’s power is at work in us and through
us.
ILLUS: Rochester,
New York, was dramatically transformed by [Charles Finney's] work there in
1830-31 in what has been called the greatest year of spiritual awakening in
American history. Shops were closed
so people could attend his meetings, and as a result of the changed hearts, the
town taverns went out of business. Finney soon won international
fame. -- "Charles Grandison Finney--19th Century Giant of American
Revivalism," Christian History, Issue 20.
5. The world’s greatest problem is not
the poverty of goods, but the poverty of God!
6. John
a. God made a plan for man’s sin to be
conquered.
b. Jesus Himself paid the price, man
could not do so.
7. For God's people it does not have
to be a problem any longer!
B. Problem
of Satan John
1. Sometimes it seems that he is
winning.
2. This world has been ruled by him,
he has been a problem you know!
3. But: Jesus has power over him! (No problem to
God!)
4. He is a nuisance, not a
winner!
a. Christ has taken from him the keys
of death and hell.
b. Christ has overpowered
Satan!
5. Satan is not a problem for the
Saint, only the sinner!
a. Even if the Christian appears not
to change the world overnight he can change the world one day at a time by
simply plodding forward in God’s power.
ILLUS: When
William Carey began thinking of going to
b. God’s power works in us one day at
a time.
6. Satan is a temporary problem, a
problem that will ultimately be terminated!
C. Problem
of Self James
1:13-15
1. Most of our trouble with sin does
not come from Satan, but self!
a. This world: "The devil made
me do it" mentality.
b. We often try and blame others or
Satan for our sins, it really boils down to self most of the
time!
2. We are our own worst
enemy!
a. Drawn away by our own
lusts.
b. Fallen nature at work! Sinful desires lead to sin if we fulfill
them! We don't sin because we have
to but because we want to!
c. Sometimes we don’t utilize the
resources we have in God’s power to overcome, and thus fail to live in
victory.
ILLUS: One New
Year's Day, in the Tournament of Roses parade, a beautiful float suddenly
sputtered and quit. It was out of gas. The whole parade was held up until
someone could get a can of gas. The amusing thing was this float represented the
Standard Oil Company. With its vast oil resources, its truck was out of
gas.
Often, Christians neglect their
spiritual maintenance, and though they are "clothed
with power"
(Luke
24:49) find
themselves out of gas. -- Steve Blankenship,
3. God’s power in us gives us power
over our fallen nature, we don’t have to yield to sin with God’s Spirit helping
us to become an overcomer!
a. God's power is greater than our
sins.
b. We can be victorious and say "no"
to sin ... God's power lives in us ... the Almighty Himself is our Lord -- no
longer our self!
II. POWER OVER PEOPLE Dan.
6:1-28
A. People of
Schemes
Dan. 6:1-24
1. Those that would try and destroy
us.
a. They may appear to be successful at
times.
b. But in the end they will be
conquered by God's power and plan.
c. Daniel appeared to have lost by
those who schemed against him.
2. We need not fear man, even evil
men!
a. God will keep us in His
power.
b. Daniel was delivered. (So were his friends from the fiery
furnace!)
c. Daniel was weak and old, but God
was still almighty. (Daniel here may have
been between 70-mid 90’s years old! – he was most likely in his early
90’s!)
ILLUS: Sometimes
telling a story has as much effect on the teller as it does the listeners. Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher,
recalls:
"My grandfather was lame. Once they asked him to tell a story
about his teacher, and he related how his master used to hop and dance while he
prayed. My Grandfather rose as he
spoke and was so swept away by his story that he himself began to hop and dance
to show how the master had done.
From that hour he was cured of his lameness." When we tell the story of our Master, we
too experience his power. -- Timothy K. Jones,
d. When you get involved in the story
of God’s power it affects you!
e. Daniel's schemers were thrown to
the lions, their own evil came back to them … usually true of those who try and
hurt others! Dan. 6:24
B. People of
Sin
Dan. 6:25-28
1. Man does not ultimately rule the
world, God does!
a. Even King Darius finally recognized
this and wrote a decree that there was no other God like Daniel’s God, that only
He was all powerful.
b. If an earthly king can write the
following: "For he is the living God and he endures forever; his
kingdom will not be destroyed, his dominion will never end. He rescues and he saves; he performs
signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He has rescued Daniel from the power of
the lions." – How much more should we recognize His almighty
power?
2. Sinners may feel powerful with
bombs and large armies, but God's power is almighty!
ILLUS: The line I
like about power is Edward Bennet William's as he was dying. Someone was teasing him about all the
power and influence he had in
a. While there is a lot of terror
going on in the word today we must remember that God is still very much in
control.
b. Sinful man will not determine the
future … God will do this.
c. We must not lose heart about
tomorrow; God has everything in control, even the affairs of sinful
man.
III. POWER OVER PLANS Ex. 13:17-14:31 James 4:13-17
A. Plans of
Satan Ex.
13:17-14:31
1. Pharaoh had it all figured
out:
a. He decided what he was going to
do.
b. ... and so had
God!!!
c. Who won?? (Clue: it wasn’t
Pharaoh!)
ILLUS: The
remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing
else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else. -- Oswald
Chambers in The Highest Good.
Christianity Today, Vol. 39, no. 1.
2. Satan's plans always end in
destruction ... God's always end in construction.
a. God puts down one ruler and lifts
up another.
b. Satan's plans for this world will
not be successful!
3. Pharaoh assumed he was more
powerful than God, this was a bad assumption, and in the end cost him a great
deal … including the life of his first born son.
a. Satan always tries to make us
believe we are our own master, that we have control over ourselves. In the end this will prove a disaster
however.
b. Satan’s original temptation for
Adam and Eve was to tempt them to be “like” God, so that they could be His
equal. It failed then, and it will
fail now.
4. Satan's plans are always frustrated
by God's power!
a. Jesus dying on the cross at first
seemed to be Satan's victory!
b. But Jesus’ cry from the cross was a
hint that Satan was losing already, Jesus cried, “It is
finished” – and this was not a cry of defeat, it was an accounting
term which meant, “paid in full.”
Jesus was already hinting that He had paid it all, and that
sin was over as the master of the human race, there would be freedom for humans
who chose to accept Christ following this.
c. Then Christ arose ... defeating not
only Satan, but sin!
B. Plans of
Self James
4:13-17
1. God is greater than our
plans.
a. Ultimately our plans are only as
good as God's will allows.
b. His power is greater than our
program!
c. In this sense we can only expect
our plans to work if we realize that they are subject to God's approval, not
ours!
ILLUS: In their
efforts to suppress circulation of Tyndale's first edition of an English New
Testament, the English Catholic authorities wasted the equivalent of several
thousand dollars trying to buy up and burn all the copies he had printed. They did this twice. The waste to them was that their funds,
funneled secretly back to Tyndale, made it possible for him to print up even
more copies of subsequent editions. -- "William Tyndale," Christian History, Issue
16.
2. God's power keeps us from some of
our plans, THANK GOD!
a. His power protects us and keeps
us.
b. He alone is powerful enough to
override our plans!
c. It is not wrong to plan for
tomorrow, but realize God is in control!
We are subject to Him, not He to us!
CONCLUSION: God alone is Almighty! He is greater than our problems, than
any person, and any plan of man's or of Satan's! He is the Lord God Almighty! "Jehovah-Shaddai!"