#5  The “Names of God” Series

 

"JEHOVAH-SHADDAI!"

(The All Sufficient & All Powerful One!")

 

TEXT:         Exodus 6:2-3; 13:17-14:31;   Dan. 6:1-28;   James 1:13-15, 4:13-17

 

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.

*     America is the most powerful nation in the world.

*     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    Rom. 3:23   John 3:16

1.   Romans 3:23 "all have sinned."

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 3:16  The problem of sin has been overpowered by God Almighty!

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 3:16

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 India as a pioneer missionary, his father pointed out to him that he possessed no academic qualifications that would fit him for such a task.  But Carey answered, "I can plod."  How true it is that God accomplishes mighty things for his kingdom through those who are willing to persevere, who are willing to plod faithfully through one difficulty after another in the power of the Spirit. -- James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 157.

 

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, Edmond, Oklahoma. Leadership, Vol. 6, no. 1.

 

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, Rocky Mount, Virginia. Leadership, Vol. 4, no. 4.

 

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 Washington.  And he said, "Power?  I'm about to meet real power." -- Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent in Newsweek (July 20, 1992).  Christianity Today, Vol. 36, no. 11.

 

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!"