Sermon Notes – August 22nd
Sermon Title: “The Power Against”(Click Here to watch full sermon)
Pastor Dennis Martin
Scripture Reading: Luke 10:17-20 NKJV
There are different degrees of power that God gives to every believer. 1 John 1:12 applies to as many as would receive it. When God gives you power, the first degree of power is not to walk on water, nor to open the eyes of the blind, but rather He gives you the power to become the individual you need to be so He can endorse and empower you. As long as we remain as a child, the blessings in store for us will be left in the hands of a guardian. If you’re asking God for stuff and He isn’t giving them to you, check yourself to see if you are the individual you need to be or God requires you to be. God doesn’t hold back because He doesn’t have it – the issue is who are we? Are we the individual we need to be or is our mind going way ahead of our mentality? There are some times when life will take us through things that we are not yet ready for. Sometimes certain things we are asking God for, He doesn’t release it to us.
Romans 8:19: For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Note that Earth is somewhat of a mother to you because God made you from earth. We are originally from Adam, hence the saying, “Mother Earth”. God made us through that substance. When God gives us power, the first power He gives us is the power to become. We must be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit to allow that process to go smoothly because it’s not easy and we are destroyed from a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:1). We must not reject this truth. After God gives us the power to become, according to Luke 10:17 – 20 NKJV, He gives us also a power against. When we find out who we are, we realize who we don’t need to be. After we discover who we need to be, then God gives us a power that works against. This is the power against. After that, He gives us the power to withstand certain things from the enemy. As He sends us on the journey, we need to withstand certain things that the enemy sends to us. In this text, we are noticing that Jesus is dealing with the 70 disciples. There are sometimes we’ll see things in scripture and think, “Well, it works for them because they are prophets and apostles.”
Today, we are in a text dealing with an average 70 people. There is nothing great about them. The Bible says that when they came back to Jesus, they said, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” (Luke 10:17) That’s a big thing. He gave that authority to the 12 only. But, when the 70 were obedient to what Jesus told them to do, through the means of authority, like an off-duty police officer armed only with his badge, Jesus’s disciples functioned not on power but on authority. They were able to do it because Jesus told them to do it. Sometimes when Jesus tells you to do a thing, that’s the upgrade.
He hastens to perform His Word – it is His responsibility to ensure that it doesn’t return to Him void. The moment He tells us to do a thing, the capacity is in us to do it. He never told the 70 about demons but when they came back, they said, “Master, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
If you continue to work against everything working against your identity, you will find undiscovered strength. This power wasn’t supposed to be given to them but like the woman with the issue of blood, the Word of God will be strong within itself. Jesus said, “I esteem my Word above my name” (Psalm 138:2). This is the power against. God gives us the power to withstand certain things so that on our journey of life, there won’t be anything easily disrupting the identity that the power against is working upon. It takes organized information with thought systematically given. We ought to understand systematically how the power of God works so that we can recreate our personal world in a way that the Holy Spirit deems fit. We ought to understand how to create that thing. There is nothing closer to being godly than that.
On the disciples’ journey, Jesus says something seemingly unattractive. He says, “I send you out as lambs among wolves” (Matthew 10:16). When one first hears that, it doesn’t sound like a pleasant situation, but understand that this is a form of a blessing. In the natural realm, notice there are more lambs than wolves. Because of the fear within the sheep, they don’t recognize there is more working for them than against them. We need to understand what “I am sending you out as lambs among wolves” really means.
Though what is working against us looks ferocious and terrifying, there is more working with us – many hands make the task light. We must always remember that we are not alone in this journey and that we are not alone in this place. One of the worst things in a situation is to feel alone and you are not actually alone. It is tragic to be married and still feel alone. It is tragic to be having people working with you and still feel like you are doing everything by yourself. Whatever the calamity – know that there are more sheep than wolves – know that at least you have a companion. Our companion might not have an answer to our problems, but at least we know we aren’t alone. It is important to have someone tangibly there, this is the blessing God gives us before sending us on this journey of life. He is sending us out on this journey as sheep among wolves, and as sheep have numbers with them, we must know that we aren’t alone. When we have a shortage of money and we need help, we need to know that there is someone there. Sometimes, our problems are our own problems because we keep them to ourselves. On our journey, we aren’t alone. If there is something we need, we must not wait for the Holy Spirit to reveal it to others, we must call someone. We can call our pastors, we can get in contact with our spiritual family.
We must know who our support net is in the house of God. Sometimes, there are times when we can’t reach the pastor, but we must have a spiritual family. When we are sick, we’re supposed to bring them to the elders. The man was lame, and his friends brought him to the roof (Mark 2:4).
If Jesus was here today, His church would be empty. Jesus said to His disciples, “Can you not tarry with me for an hour?” (Matthew 26:40) We say two minutes and that can seem a lengthy time to some. He said, “I’m sending you out as lambs amongst wolves”. Know that lambs are obedient to instruction. There has to be a level of obedience. When they would leave their house in the Middle East culture, they were leaving to go somewhere. That’s what it is like in our lives. It is one thing to know God has called you, but it is in the coming that makes it hard. It is in the process of coming that we find a snake and a scorpion.
You have to understand, God has given us power to stand against. We are not alone – we are like sheep, we have a herd of people. Good company corrupts good habits – bad company corrupts good character.
Whenever God tries to do a thing, before Adam, He works the environment – as in Eden. The first environment is a social network, we must surround ourselves with humble people. God called us to shepherd sheep not goats. Jesus didn’t fight religion but the tradition of elders, the human-made things they put on God’s word.
Sometimes we don’t do what Jesus did because there was no consistent practice. Jesus fasted 40 days, but when have we done that? Don’t ignore His practices and expect the same results – put in the work and then get results. The other thing God gives us by His grace, to keep us from getting caught by serpents and scorpions, is that He tells us not to carry anything. He tells us not to care so much about the world or people – David sinned more than Saul, David killed, and committed adultery – name it – the list goes on. But God endorsed David – Saul did one thing and the kingdom was torn from his hand. Does that make sense? And yet, what Saul did was listen to the complaints of the people. Saul worried about the people. Touch yourself today and declare, “I’m not going to worry about people.” Keep J.O.Y in mind – Jesus first, Yourself last, and Others in between. This is true self care – not as the world does it with all this talk of “I, I, I”. The last time that Pastor Dennis heard of anyone going on about “I, I, I,” it was Lucifer.
When you put Jesus first, it will be a blessing on your heart. We can’t worry about people. Aaron was supposed to be the priest and yet, when Moses went to the mountain top, Aaron listened to the people.
Don’t lean on what other people tell you versus what God is saying over your life. Distractions are revelations to your true desires – if I say I will do a thing, and then something takes me out of that path, that’s a hidden desire I didn’t know about. This is dangerous, as the enemy knows what will distract us.
Distractions would otherwise not derail you. Jesus is telling us in terms of protecting who we need to be, that we aren’t alone, and that we need to not be easily distracted from the world. We can’t allow the cares of the world or people to derail us. It’s a long process.
Sometimes in the long process to regard people, it can waste our time. We know our birthday, and bills, but we can’t act like time is something we really know about. We don’t know our expected end. Be wise.
When the Word of God teaches us to number our days, we need to heed this truth. Time isn’t something to be presumptuous about – don’t allow people to waste your time. If you as a couple have a plan, stick with the plan – first God said, “Pray to the Lord of the harvest (Luke 10:2).” Jesus tells them to pray, then He tells them to go, and then He tells them how to go, just as He does for us today. He told them to take nothing with [them] (Luke 10:4). Likewise, He tells us how to go. Jesus will always go the route to always have us trust Him entirely. Be a person who can pray and trust the Lord. Day by day, ask the Lord what is next. Some may ask, “Every little thing we need to bring to Jesus?” To this, Pastor Dennis would respond with, well, what is too big for Jesus exactly? We ought to bring everything. If God speaks to us so freely, we ought to receive everything He’d like to say. God wants us to trust Him entirely, we can trust all with Him. Somethings we don’t need to ask God about because it is in His Word. All we need to do is pray back His Word. Thanks be to the angels who hasten onto the sound of His Word. They move according to hearing the Word of God.
There are businesses, like Kellogg’s Cornflakes that make money selling unfancy cereal – how you may ask?
They tithe! Just look at the stature of their business. How much more can we receive if we tithe and continue to sow? These are principles and tools for us to work. We have to trust God in our finances. We have to trust God with our relationships. We aren’t alone and we can’t be distracted. Concerning life’s mission, we need to be who we need to be to have what we need to have – this is the Power Play. Ever notice the Word of God is so true when we do these principles? When the 70 came back – though they were sheep among wolves – everyone came back safe. These are average people that took on the tools Jesus gave them, the first thing they realized were the promises Jesus gave them, but they also realized the hidden strength Jesus gave them. We too will find hidden strength. They said, “Master, even the demons are subject to us.” The power against, complimenting the power to become is there for you to discover hidden strength. Hidden strength as in undiscovered strength. Most of us are caught up in potential, meaning, “I see it in you, but you don’t see it in yourself,” but the Bible says that they saw that.
These disciples were sent out to do two things, they were sent out to preach the gospel and heal the sick. Whatever you are sowing and believing God for, believe there is an extra blessing on top of it as you obey. If you are believing for a house, there can be a car too. He’ll always go beyond according to Ephesians 3:20. He told you to do this and you were able to do that and on the journey of obedience, you found extra strength. It was something you weren’t there for but God made sure there was a contingency plan.
When you discovered who you needed to be, you also discovered what are the things that can threaten that. Whenever there is a time that God wants us to be intentional about something, He’ll be so plain as if we are driving down the 401, and clearly seeing Yorkdale mall, even if we aren’t going slowly. He wants your vision to be that clear – write it down, what are the things that disrupt what God wants to do in your life? We have to know the foundation. When that is clear, we can start becoming co-labourers with God. We have to be co-labourers with God. God is saying, “When are you going to work with Me regarding the blessings assigned to your life? This world is temporary. I appreciate you making accommodations in this life, but what about the next? When you pray to Me about yourself, happiness, eternity, I hear you talk, but I feel like I’m the only One who cares and is working at it.” Ask God for the power against, because God orders that. For you to be the husband you need to be, ask God what you need to be. When I was a child (1 Corinthians 13:11). When you become a man, you realize your capacity. It is not every time you need to fight, some things you just let go. One thing that Pastor Dennis loves about his marriage is that Lady Toya always gives him the last word – as long as his last word is, “Okay dear.”
There are always casualties in war, thanks be to God for the power against. By this, we can withstand the power of pride. The greatest of all sins is always pride – what we get out of it, what it makes us feel like – this is why Jesus said, “I saw Lucifer fall”. (Luke 10:18) This was a four-folded fall. First, he fell from his glory according to Ezekiel 28, down to a profane state. Second, he fell from having access to heaven to make his bed and sleep there. His third fall is from the earth to the bottomless pit. Know that we can’t bind the devil, God has given us power and authority over his devices, but he is right now loosed and freed to operate, UNTIL his last fall. Concerning his third fall, this was from a place of pride – Oh how the mighty have fallen all because they didn’t use the bow. Finally, the last fall is from the pit to the lake of fire. When Jesus said he saw Lucifer fall, He’s talking prophetically from eternity’s past because he subjugated the demons and that is praiseworthy. Jesus also knows what He prophetically saw in us, it will take place as long as we utilise the power against and keep ourselves on the straight and narrow. For Pastor Dennis, out of his house, while he is doing grocery shopping, he is always a pastor first. He is assigned to people, he loves people, and he is assigned. It is a daily process to fight against, to work the power against – this is a daily struggle. He’s lost battles, but thanks be to God, in eternity’s past, Jesus has seen his start and end. Jesus has seen who Pastor Dennis is and what he is capable of doing, Jesus saw him doing it all. He knows it will work because he saw the end from the beginning. In closing, there are serpents along the way and life is a journey. They are poisonous and venomous. On our journey to life, we must not allow the lies of the enemy to diss us from the truth that God has for us; don’t allow the serpent to bite and sting you. Who has God said you are? Believe that. Do not allow on your journey, scorpions and snakes to infiltrate your finances and marriages. Remember you are not alone. Declare today, “I won’t be distracted and I won’t worry about people.” People will influence us.
But thank God Jesus loves you enough that He thought you were worthy enough to die for. Whenever someone wants to come your way and try to distract you, hold onto the truth that you are a peculiar person. The power against is there to protect the power to become.
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