God's Power

This morning, I want to talk to you about power: the power we need so desperately to live our lives; the power to be a good person; the power to be a good parent, a good spouse, a good friend, a good neighbor; the power to make the right kind of choices, the choices that are right and good even when life beats us down; the power to live what I believe; the power to be God's salt and light and aroma in the world; the power to do what God is calling me and calling you to do; the power to live a godly God-honoring life. That's why you're here. You may be here for the first time. If you are, welcome. You may have been here fifty years; welcome. But I know why you're here: you're here because you need power. You know that it's God's power that can help. We all need power. And we live in a power-filled place. Now, you may think that Walla Walla / College Place / Milton-Freewater is a little bit of a stretch saying it's a power-filled place, but we're not off the grid here. We may not be a Seattle. We may not be a San Francisco or Los Angeles, but, but we have a feeling that we need power. Powerlessness can be painful. It feels like we lack what we need to be the person we know we need to be, and it strikes at our sense of dignity, our worth. Maybe that's why the word empowerment has become such a buzzword today in education and training ads and in, in all sorts of things. They say we will empower you. It's become sort of a, a central thought. Power is good. But it also impacts our lives in ways that may not be so good. You all know this saying the Lord Acton said, the 19th century British historian, and he said, years ago, "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

We've seen his maxim repeated over and over again, both in history and science. For example in 1971 Stanford University conducted now famous prison experiment. That's what it was called. Volunteers, they were college students, were asked and randomly assigned, just regular college students, to be either guards or prisoners at this so-called prison, this mock prison. This experiment was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, and the goal was to better understand, better understand the root of bad blood that happens in prison between prison guards and prisoners in the Navy and the Marine Corps. So that's what they wanted to find out. Interestingly, within just a few days, the mock prison became so oppressive that a number of prisoners wanted out, and they were able to get out. The whole experiment was abandoned after just six days because the harassment and psychological abuse became so out of control that they had to abandon it, and these were all innocent college students, mind you, not prisoners or guards. I read about that this week and also an article I read by Dacher Keltner entitled "Why Power Corrupts," and he concluded that power doesn't corrupt, but it does tempt people to take ethical shortcuts. Interesting. And he quoted in his article a maxim I've never heard of by Abraham Lincoln who said "Nearly all men men can stand adversity. But if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

Give him power.

We're seeing that on display in technicolor today, aren't we? We're seeing it. And high definition reality in our day. Every day seems like there's a new story, a new story. People in power misbehaving. One experiment I read about this week called the Cookie Monster experiment, a study that Keltner did, this one I mentioned to you already that wrote the article, and he brought groups of three people into the lab, and one person was randomly selected as quote "the leader" and then this group of three was given a task, and it was to write something together, and after about a half an hour a plate of freshly baked cookies was brought to them. Four cookies; three people in the group. So here's a question for you. Who do you think got the fourth cookie?

The one who was designated as leader. Now, how did that work? Almost always it was the leader. Apparently, apparently having status, having power means getting the extra cookie. Also, it's kind of interesting, in this experiment, the leaders were also most likely to eat with their mouth open, smack their lips, and let crumbs fall into their clothes: obviously immorality; Cookie Monster immorality. We all want power; we all have some power; and we all misuse power to some degree. We think that power means that we should get what we want. We should get our will to be done. The truth is that power actually erodes our humanity. Keltner calls it the paradox, the "power paradox," and here's how he says it happens. He explains it take certain skills, as you know, I mean, to get power it takes certain skills, gifts and abilities. It takes being empathetic and, and open and fair and collaborative and sharing. But then, he's discovered that, once you have power, once you acquire power, that facade fades, and the skills that it took to get you there erode, once you have power. Interesting. The power paradox. He says that people suffer from what he called empathy deficit. Now, think of that: empathy. Powerful people are less able to empathize experience; that means experiencing the feelings of others. They lose their ability to put themselves in the other person's place. They become rude. They become selfish. They become unethical. Yes, power can be hazardous to your moral health. Another article I read by the same author said, and he said that, power acts, the influence of power, acts like a traumatic brain injury.

Power. And in this, in this article called "Power Causes Brain Damage," it caused quite a stir when it was written about a year ago, and he cited research that was done on the heads of powerful people and the not so powerful people with this thing called the transcranial magnetic stimulation machine and they discovered that power impairs certain processes in the brain. They could see this happening, and they call it, it impairs the process of what's called mirroring. The ability to empathize, to experience the feelings of others. People in power lose that capacity to put themselves in other people's shoes.

Power is not just a title. The Bible says that power is a spiritual force. Paul talks about that in Ephesians Chapter 6 Verse 12 and he says that the powers of darkness of this world, the spiritual forces of evil. So the power of, the power of, of having power tends to do something to your state of mind, and over time, over time, it causes you and me to treat people differently, and it happens quickly. Just like that Cookie Monster experiment. I have to tell you another experiment I read about, it's been repeated over and over again, about people and powerful cars. Did you know that people who drive powerful cars, luxury cars, are less empathetic than the people who drive inexpensive cars? Now, let me, let me explain. You know, you'd think that someone who's driving a powerful car, a BMW or Mercedes, or something like that, you'd think that that person, since they have that ability to buy that, that they would have come to the point where they would have the capacity to be grateful. You know, they have education, they have acquired wealth, and they, they ought to feel grateful. But, and you'd think that that capacity, that that gratefulness, would be expressed in the way they drive. Well, according to the scientific studies, turns out that the people who drive the least expensive cars are the ones who are most consistently the most mindful of pedestrians. In fact, people who drive cheap cars like a Chevy Spark or Ford Fiesta or a Kia Rio (I'm sorry if I've offended any of you who have one of those cars, but, hey, you're) the most noteworthy and generous and polite drivers out there. People who drive luxury cars (I'm sorry for those who might have one of those too), but if you're driving those, you tend to be a person that you only yield to a person, a pedestrian in the sidewalk, 50% of the time, actually 54%. And by the way, you're breaking the law when you do that, and you're ignoring a pedestrian as well. Interesting, isn't it? Historian Henry Adams, he was speaking metaphorically here not, not medically, he said this: "Power was sort of a tumor that ends by killing the victim's sympathies."

Isn't that interesting? Power: we need it. But it does something to us.

We're in this series here, in First Corinthians, and we're being informed by Paul's letter to the church in Corinth, and, boy, if there was any place that was all about power, it was Corinth. Corinth was a powerful city. We've talked about that. It was a place where people made money. It was a place for people with power. It was a crossroads, as we've talked about, of trade and commerce, and the city, just a hundred fifty years before Paul was there, had been conquered and leveled, and then 50 years before Paul arrived, it was re-founded by Julius Caesar, 44 BC, and it was just a

connecting place in the world back then, and when Paul visited this place, it was like a Seattle; it was like a San Francisco; it was like an LA of the ancient times, and you'd think that,

that Paul would have thought about this a little bit, you know.

And Corinth became so associated with wealth and status that 2000 years later Chrysler referred to the upholstery that they used in their luxury vehicles as Corinthian leather. Have you ever heard of Corinthian leather? That's what they called it. Really? I looked that up. They did; they called it Corinthian leather. And what is Corinthian leather, by the way? Is that from cows that live in Corinth? No, it's not. It's just a better way of saying

leather with vinyl. But they called it Corinthian leather, because it sounds expensive, it sounds luxurious. It has nothing to do with Corinth or Corinthian cows; it's just a marketing tool, but it worked; it worked. But that was Corinth: it was rich, it was powerful. But as we've seen, power can do brain damage. And so this is the backdrop of Paul writing to Corinth, and I find it so interesting that when he writes to them he introduces himself; he describes himself to these people who are immersed in power this way (1st Corinthians Chapter 1 Verse 2, no, Chapter 2 Verse 3) I came to you (how?) in weakness with great fear. Look at those words. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling: not just weakness, but weakness with fear, not just weakness with fear, but great weakness, great fear; great fear; weakness and fear and trembling; not just those two, but trembling as well. When you're interviewing for a job, you want to have your act together. I think you probably know that. You want to be prepared. You want to be poised. You want to be positive, competent and confident. You want to look sharp. You want to be enthusiastic. You want to be ready to give some examples of your success, right? When you give a job interview you dress appropriately. Your etiquette is right; you sit the right way; you follow accepted protocol. Your mind is, is thinking about the body language. You don't slouch in the chair. Especially you don't tremble. Now when you tremble in a, in a job interview, that's not a good way to get a position.

No speaker in Corinth ever introduced himself this way: trembling; that's what Paul said.

Nobody introduced himself that way except for one person: Paul.

Why did he do that? You remember a couple of weeks ago we were talking about God's foolishness and we are repeated a word over and over again. What was it? "But God," that's what it was, "but God." We looked at some of Paul's words in his second letter to the church in Corinth. And in there. 2nd Corinthians 11, Paul lists his failures, his problems, his rejections, his humiliations. It's a celebration of his weakness and personal inadequacy and climaxes in this (you remember, 2nd Corinthians 12:7 and 8) "Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. Now, we're not told what this, this messenger was. We're not told what his problem was, but based on what we know about Paul, some people have speculated that it may have been a sight problem, a vision problem. Some others say it may have been epilepsy. Some others say maybe it was anxiety. Maybe Paul suffered from panic attacks, and maybe he literally, maybe he physically actually trembled. Some have even conjectured that Paul suffered from a form of malaria that was quite common in the ancient world that would have drained him of his strength, his physical strength and power, would have taken away his vigor and, and his energy, so he probably did tremble, or trembled easily.

But whatever Paul was,

he was a brilliant man. One of the most brilliant that's ever lived; one of the most influential minds in the history of the human race. That's who he really was. We're told in one of his letters that he was educated at the feet of Gamaliel; that was quite a statement. Gamaliel was one of the greatest rabbis in Israel at that time, and Israel was noteworthy for its intellectual tradition. So to be educated by that man was quite something. Not only that but he was an esteemed Jew, and not just an esteemed Jew, he was a Roman citizen, and not just a Roman citizen, he was a world traveler. So why would Paul go to Corinth in weakness and fear and trembling?

Why? Why would he come to this place that's all full of power and status and prestige, this place of Corinthian leather? OK? Why would he come to this place and remind them

that he came in weakness with great fear and trembling; why?

I think it's because Paul is coming with a different kind of power. He knows all about the power that's going on in Corinth. He knows all about the power of the world. But he's coming with a different kind of power; the kind of power that we need.

Because on his way to Damascus, you remember the story, he was on his way to corral a bunch of followers of Jesus for punishment, but Paul's world was turned upside down by Jesus Christ,

who appeared to him in vision. And Paul realizes that he's on the wrong end of the road; that Jesus is actually the Messiah, the Savior. Lord, King; that Jesus is actually God; and he gives himself then and there to serve this One who came, not to be served, but to serve. Not to be powerful, but a slave giving his life as a ransom; that's what happened to Paul on that road to Damascus. And so now for Paul everything that he would have called earmarks of power, heritage, position, prestige, position, zeal, all those things, now he considers all of them as rubbish, you know those verses, because Paul has found a new kind of power. a new kind of power, a life-giving power, a life transforming power, a life purposing power. And it's a power that's available to everyone, even the most powerless; even the marginal; even the lowly; even the needy; even the least; even the lost.

Which included those who were in Corinth, because you remember when Paul talks about them, he doesn't pat them on the back too much. He says "Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called (we talked about this before), not many of you were wise by human standards; not many of you were influential; not many of you were of noble birth." So Paul, he's starting right in, isn't he? His ministry with them was one that was with them in weakness, fear and trembling. But it was evidence that God can use anyone.

God can use anyone.

God can use the personally inadequate. He can use the uninfluential. He can use the least born, and He can do great things through them. through you, through me.

Paul made a discovery in Jesus Christ, as One who said "Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the merciful." Paul discovered a power that undergirded power,

undergirds true power, and that is compatible with human weakness; your weakness. my weakness.

And Paul highlights that; he revels in this weakness. He, he highlights his own weakness, so that, why? So that others could see that it wasn't about him; it was about God. It was about the God who strengthened him. It is about the Holy Spirit who's available to you and to me; that's why. And that kind of power isn't dangerous to our soul. That's not the kind of power that makes me proud or arrogant or self-centered or egotistical. No, no: that not the Holy Sprit power. Paul said (1st Corinthians 2:3 to 5) "I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with (what?) a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on human tradition but on God's power." Is that what your faith rests in? God's power (we talked about that, you remember: "but God," you know), and Paul is saying something similar here. And he's saying the crucial issue is not human wisdom. It's not EQ. It's not IQ. It's not riches. It's not position. It's none of those things. It is one thing: it's God's power; God's power. You were made to be powered by God, not by yourself; that will make you, well, immoral. Paul is introducing, introducing here the Spirit of God. This is the first time he mentions that word in this book, in his letter to the church at Corinth. The Holy Spirit, first time he mentions it in this letter, and the truth he is sharing with the church in Corinth is a truth that is essential for all of us; for me, for you. Power Is part of what it means to be a human being. We all need power, but we weren't made to run on our own power, on our own Intelligence, on our own gifts and abilities.

That kind of power corrupts us.

A long time ago the prophet Zechariah gave us this word from God: "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts."

Human power is infected with corrupting power.

God's power, the power that says the first are last, the great serve, riches are given to relieve suffering, that power is a different kind of power. Before Jesus left this planet. He said to His followers: "Don't leave Jerusalem; (you remember this) wait." Wait for My, the gift My Father promised, but you will receive power. That's what it's all about. You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and that promise is true. And I want to challenge you: today, don't leave here without God's power filling your heart and empowering your life. Don't leave here without that. Don't leave here.

A couple of weeks ago. I invited you to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Today, I'm going to be inviting you to invite the Holy Spirit to take His place in your life. Now, I don't mean to suggest by that that the two are different. No, they aren't, but it's easy to drift from this truth: that the purposeful, the meaningful, the joyful, the good life that God has for us is not by human might, it's not by human power, but it's by God's Spirit. So, I'm going to invite you.

And that's Paul's appeal to the church in Corinth: this place where riches and influence and power and success meant everything, that's Paul's point. He says (Verse 4 and 5, again) "my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power." Why? Because Paul knows that our life doesn't rest in our own human wisdom and strength and abilities. That's a recipe for disaster.

You surrender your life, your spirit, your wisdom, your power, to be empowered by God, and you'll have a new life. an amazing life.

For a couple of months now, actually, almost, the Village staff have been contemplating our future here at Village. Okay? What our, what's our direction going to be for 2019-2020, and where He would have us go, who He would have us be? And you know that, looking over the last few years, we've been sort of historical here at Village Church. We've been about our 125th anniversary. That was 2017. Last year, 2018, we were about our 50th anniversary. But, thinking of the future, we were thinking what, what should we be about? What should be our picture? What does our future look like? And we have a picture, and we've come up with this thought: Vision 2020. Okay, you know, that's not all that new; I mean, everybody's saying that these days; but that's what it is: Vision 2020. But it's this: making disciples. And we were talking about that, just our staff meeting just this last Tuesday, and Pastor Dan, who always, whenever he's said something, it's always quite meaningful, and deep, and rich, and profound, said that, when I asked the question, what does that look like at Village Church, and he said that's everybody at Village Church with God's power. That's what it looks like. Filled with the Holy Spirit, daily reading God's Word, daily empowered by Him, daily connecting with Him. It looks like: what does it look like in 2020 for Village Church? It looks like people doing life by My Spirit, says the Lord, not by human might, not by human power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord. Believers, young and old, male and female, educated, uneducated, all being indwelt, empowered, inspired, enobled, transformed by the Spirit of God, that's what we want. That's what we're about. Vision 2020: making disciples. And that's Paul's prayer for the church in Corinth; that's his prayer for the church in Ephesus, too. I love this prayer, and it's my prayer that this will become yours in Christ. This is being prayed for you. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That's our prayer.

Despite what it, what anyone else may say about you, despite what they may say to you, this is the reality of Christ in you.

Not just His riches, notice; it's His glorious riches, His glorious riches. That's why Paul came to Corinth in weakness with great fear and trembling. He says that because, because he wanted their strength to be God's strength; and not just God's strength; God's glorious strength. And that's what we can have in Jesus Christ. That's my hope for myself, my hope for you. You don't run on your own power. And the difference is kind of hard to describe, but I'm going to tell a ridiculous, corny story. So please forgive me, okay? But, I know it's bad, I know it's bad, but humor me just for a moment. Okay? Years ago when I was a child, we used to, people used to like to poke fun at each other with stories, you know, like the Swedes would talk about the Norwegians, and the, and the French would talk about the British, and the Walla Walla ites would talk about the College Place ites, you know. I don't know whether that happened here in College Place, but I want to, I know it's a ridiculous story, but I want to just tell you one that illustrates this point better than anything else, if I could. A man from College Place goes to buy a chainsaw to cut down his trees in his backyard. It doesn't work very well. The first day he only cuts down five trees. The second day he only gets two down, and by the third day, even though he works so hard, he only gets one tree down. So he decides to take it back to the chainsaw dealer in Walla Walla. Just to make sure, when the man sees him coming in, he takes the chainsaw and starts it up. And the guy from College Place says, what's that?

What's that noise?

Now if you're from College Place, please don't take offense.

But it tells the story and makes the point so well, doesn't it?

I try to live God's commands without receiving God's strength. And it's impossible. Can't happen. It's an exercise in frustration; an exercise in disappointment. Unfortunately some people, yeah, some of us, do that for years:

Trying to live God's commands without His power, and that's not the way it's meant to be. How do I live this purposeful, joyful, meaningful, God honoring, God fulfilling life? Not on my own. Not on my own. I can only live it by God's power; by the Holy Spirit power, and it's here for us today. For three years the disciples tried hard to do what Jesus said, and it didn't go very well.

Jesus was falsely accused and condemned and died, but rose from the grave, ascended, went to heaven, and then He said, before He left, He said "Don't leave, not yet. Don't go."

And you know what happened? The day of Pentecost came. Pentecost. And suddenly, it says in the book of Acts, the sound of blowing, violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house. They were sitting, and they saw, they saw what seemed to be like tongues of fire that separated and came on, to rest on each one of them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. That sound that came, it sounded like wind, but it really wasn't wind, a violent wind, but that's power. It looked like fire, tongues of fire, but it really wasn't fire. But it was power. And what was it? And people said, what was that sound?

It was the sound of the Holy Spirit.

Something happened that day. It was the power of God's Spirit. Personal power. Power for you, power for me to live the life God has us to live. And those people were changed. They were changed. Those people that found it hard to love all of a sudden began loving as they had never loved before. People who had such a hard time forgiving each other found it easy to forgive and give. People who found it hard to support others were helping others and upholding others the sort of the way that Jesus did. All of a sudden they had power to serve, power to stop worrying, power to, to fight that ego and their own personal agenda, power to care for the poor, power to resist temptation, power to build a church. All of a sudden that power came, that power like had never been before.

Power to live and die with hope and dignity and joy,

that's here for us.

So now it's your turn. it's my turn. You will receive power, Jesus said. I love the way Ellen White says it: "When the Spirit of God takes possession of the heart, it transforms the life. (Just like that.) Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds are renounced; love, humility and peace take the place of anger, envy and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness, and the countenance reflects the light of Heaven." Do you want that, friend? I want that. I want that. By God's strength. By God's power. When the Spirit of God comes into your life, you'll find yourself unleashed by the Spirit's power. Paul talks about that later on Corinthians. We'll get to it, but I'll just give you a little snippet. It's called the the gifts of the Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit: special abilities that make this church like no other place in the world. Gifts of shepherding, gifts of administration, gifts of leadership and encouragement and serving and giving, and creating it a place that honors God, as a spectacle to the world. The gifts of the Spirit, not just that, but when the Spirit comes, there's fruits of the Spirit. God gives you not just special abilities, but also He brings the goodness of God into your life, with special character traits. Paul also writes about that in another place in the book of Galatians where he says when the Spirit operates in your life, you have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. That comes into your life. You pray, you ask God to grow that in you, and He does, He will. Because He's in you, He'll do that. This week, He'll do that. Next week, He'll do that. In your life. But in addition to the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit, God also says that you'll experience the indwelling of the Spirit. We're going to look at this a little bit later on too, where Paul says that you can anticipate

the indwelling and the work of God's Spirit in you, and "Don't you know," he says, "that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you've received from God?"

A dad was trying to trying to explain this to his little daughter, that by the Spirit Jesus lives and dwells in our lives, in our hearts. And the little girl said to her daddy, I know that, Daddy; I know that Jesus lives in my heart because when I put my hand over it I can feel Him walking around in there.

That's a good way to say it, isn't it? He's in you. He's real. He's in you. Not physical, but it's real. It's real. And so a couple weeks ago, I invited you to accept Jesus, and become a follower. Today I want to invite you to make your life an adventure, OK? A Holy Spirit inspired adventure. Do life by the power of the Spirit, not by any other power. Would you? Would you do that today? And I'll tell you what will happen. I'll tell you what will happen. When you surrender to the Spirit, when you humble yourself to the Spirit, when you pray to God, lifting up your life to the Spirit of God continually, moment by moment, you'll find a new aliveness in you. You'll have a greater sense of God's presence in your life. You'll have more guidance coming to you. And power to replace frustration and confusion.

Power to live a devoted life. A God-honoring life. You see, when the Spirit comes, when the Spirit comes, if you don't listen, if you don't respond, you tend to become more insensitive. That's what happens. But when the Spirit comes and you say yes, and you say yes every time the Spirit moves you, you become, moment by moment, day by day, more sensitive to His healing, more trusting in His power, less worrying about yourself, and having a greater love for others. And you'll sleep at night with a little more peace.

So how about it? Will you receive power today?

Let's pray. Father in heaven, You're offering us Your power through Your Spirit. Paul said it: Don't you know, he said, that Your Spirit, O Lord, lives in us; dwells in us; and we've been bought with a price?

O Lord, You have everything we need, and You want to fill us with glorious power; not just power, but glorious power; amazing power; power to live our lives in a, in a way that brings honor to You and, and brings us purpose and meaning. So, Lord, all of us here, all of us are saying yes to You, and we're going to do it right now by raising our hand, saying yes, Lord, come into my life. Whether you're with us by internet or TV. Whatever, wherever you are, raise your hand, saying to God, God, come into my life. Let your Spirit take residence