feast: Power

Using God's Gift of Power
John F. Bulharowski
Given 18-Oct-00; Tape #FT00-07; 34 minutes

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I'd like to begin with something of a personal note. It's probably been in the last three or four years that I have developed an interest in automobile racing, specifically Nascar Racing. I'm not sure where to point the finger of blame for all of this, because my wife's father used to run a garage in eastern Pennsylvania in the 1950's and part of his activities was to have a race car. He used to go out on Sundays. He didn't drive, but he owned a race car and kept it going.

Back in those days, the cars were not what you see today. They would be referred to as jalopies by today's standards, but nevertheless it was out of this kind of thing that grew what we know of as the modern Nascar Racing. My son-in-law is deeply involved in it, so I guess he's as good as anyone to point the finger of blame at.

Such is my interest. It went to the point that I felt that I would like to experience what it is to drive one of these machines. So my son, Tom, and I, last spring, went out to the local race track in Irwindale, California, just east of Los Angeles. It's a very nice half-mile track and they have these race cars with 450 horse power. You know when you climb in (and you literally climb into these machines) that it's not your regular family Chevy station-wagon.

You have to wear all of the protective equipment to protect against fire and get strapped in tightly. You push this button and you hear the rumble of this machine and you know you have a tiger in your hands.

We spent the day driving these race cars. They didn't let us do whatever we wanted, but they allowed us to go up to about 90 miles per hour, they said. Whether or not it was 90 miles per hour or 95, I don't know, but it was pretty exhilarating.

What I want to illustrate by bringing this out -- and those of you who are not interested in racing can take heart in this. I'm not going to take the entire time talking about race cars. But I want to bring out the idea of power. As I said, we were driving what I thought was really fast around this track, knowing that I still had a lot of gas pedal left. If I pushed that thing to the floor it would still knock me back in the seat and I'd probably be in the wall at the first turn. But power. It was awesome. It was amazing.

Of course, I understand, too, that everybody is not interested in it and especially with regard to machines and race cars, this is what we call a "guy thing." Men are easily impressed, I suppose, with machines, race cars, freight trains, jet planes, etc. . . So I got to thinking, "What do the other people think? What does the female side think about it?"

I asked my wife, "What kind of power impresses you? What do you think about when we talk about power?" She thought for a while. It wasn't race cars. It wasn't jet planes. To her a car is something you get in, you turn the key and it better go ""Voom!"!", and it better carry your groceries back and forth. That's all she cares about. An airplane, again, is just another form of transportation.

After a little bit of thought, she reflected upon our past. Probably thirty years ago, we used to live in upstate New York, right on the coast of Lake Ontario. We were about 2 to 2 1/2 hours drive from Niagara Falls. Has anyone been to Niagara Falls? It's a pretty impressive thing. I was amazed. We weren't to the falls yet, and I'm not sure how far away we were, but you could see a great mist rising and hear the thunder of the falls. It is a tremendous amount of water pouring over. I don't know how high the falls are. I guess I should have researched it, but it's not critical to this message. You finally get there and you stand on the brink of this thing and you watch this torrent of water (I don't know if torrent is a proper word to describe it all) just pouring over this precipice. You hear the noise, the thunder, the mist rising, and it is Power. It is powerful.

Further down the river, they do have an electric generating station that derives its power from this water -- not the water falling over the falls, but they divert some to generate a large amount of power. So much power, that only a tiny amount of water going down the river is used for power generation. This generates power for most of the northeast section of the United States.

Now living in Los Angeles, we're not to far from the Pacific Ocean, and you have all the impressive things of an ocean. Just to stand there on a normal day and watch the surf coming, listening to the surf pounding. From time to time, we do have pretty strong Pacific storms that come in and strike the coast of Los Angeles. There are people who are rich enough and foolish enough to build their homes right along the beach. And, not surprisingly, when these storms come in, the houses don't stay very long. The waves that come literally crashing against these things ? there's no house that can stand against such a thing.

In times past, I spent some time in the Navy and I got to witness first hand the power of the ocean. Once again, you stand on the pier and look at these seemingly large ships, these steel hulks, and think, "Wow, that is powerful, really powerful." Believe me, and no pun intended, it's a drop in the bucket when you go out into the deep water and you get the raging storms coming up. It can sink anyone of those powerful warships that we build. As powerful as they are and as impressive as they are to us man folk, the ocean is far, far more impressive and awe inspiring in terms of its power.

So, obviously, we can't think about something like Niagara Falls or the power of the ocean without coming into God's power. These are physical extensions of the arm of God, the power of God.

He let Job know that in no uncertain terms in chapter 38 of the book of Job. We also see something of the power of the anger of God as He's talking to Job.

Job 38:1 ? Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now your loins like a man; for I will ask you and you will instruct. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? [Talk about POWER!] Tell me if you have understanding. Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who enclosed the sea with doors [this is power], when bursting forth it went out from the womb when I made a cloud its garment, and a thick darkness its swaddling band? And I placed boundaries on it . . .

I [God] placed boundaries upon this powerful Pacific Ocean -- this Pacific Ocean that will come in and tear into splinters any building that we can build and put along the shoreline.

Job 38:10-11 ? "I set a bolt and doors and I said, 'Thus far shall you come, but no farther. And here shall your proud waves stop!'"

What a display of power! This is God's power! Is it possible to even begin to think about power or talk power without coming back to God? It's really, I guess, what the world wants to avoid admitting.

I work for the jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, California. Some of you may know it and some of you may not know it, but the jet propulsion laboratory is part of the National Aeronautics Space Administration which sends the space probes out to the various planets. When you look at the underlying reasons and the purposes that they state ? the big think now is to search for water. We want to find water on Mars and they claim that they have found evidence. They claim that they have found evidence of water on one of the moons of Jupiter.

Really, the underlying thing is, that they would like to say, "There, you see, it all happened by chance. There is no God. There is no God of power that did all this stuff." Unlike what God did say in plain terms to Job. "I placed the boundaries of the oceans." He could have gone further and said, "I have placed the boundaries for everything that's there." That's Godly power!

I'd like to lead you back to a familiar scripture, but one that's very seldom used in preaching, I guess because it is so familiar. But in Matthew 6 we have a section that, again, everyone knows from very early on in his life.

Matthew 6:8-13 ? Therefore do not be like them [i.e., the Gentiles] for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. And when you pray, pray like this: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

I would like to use this as a spring board into (what is hopefully) the meatier part of what I have to say. I'm not big on word studies and Greek words. It's easy to go astray when you go off in this kind of study, but it's an interesting kind of thing here. The word translated power is from the Greek and it's cataloged by Strong as #1411. You take your modern electronic Bible, such as the on-line Bible which somebody just recently gave me a copy of, and you do a little research.

A search on #1411 will find that it's variously translated as power, mighty work, strength, miracle, might, virtue, mighty and [there's another one there] miscellaneous. Nine times it's translated in some other way. Or, it gives this additional amplification. It says, "Strength, power, ability, inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth; power for performing miracles; moral power and excellence of soul; power consisting in or resting upon armies, forces or hopes."

This is all fine and nice, but it's all sort of stilted sounding, scholarly sounding and scholarly stuff tends to be kind of dry and it doesn't really give a gut feel impact. So, you look a little further and you look at this word #1411 in Strong's, and the word is the Greek "dunamis." Does that sound familiar at all?

Let's go a little further. This is a word that carries through into our modern English in many ways. Take your Webster's dictionary and look under words like dynamic ? dunamis. The second letter is Upsilon, and if you look at a capital Upsilon, it looks like the letter y. So it's an easy conversion to dynamic.

Of course, that's marked by a continuous and usually productive activity. If you talk about a dynamic person, he's a person that is always doing something. Always building something. Always working on ideas.

Dynamo is one that is not so frequently used as it was in times past, but again, reflecting on Niagara Falls, the electric generating plant has what we used to call dynamos ? these large electric generators. I didn't see the ones at Niagara, but I did see the ones that they have at Boulder Dam. Huge dynamos generating power, if you get the idea.

Here's a very interesting one -- dynasty. This gives the idea of a familial sequence of ruling power. Father to son, son to son. A dynasty -- power.

The last one I've chosen needs very little comment. Dynamite! Explosive power. We even use it allegorically by saying, "He's a dynamite speaker or a dynamite salesman." And we all know exactly what it means. This person is just fantastically powerful in whatever he does.

Revelation 3:7-8 ? And to the angel of the church at Philadelphia write, "He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut and who shuts and no one opens, says this, 'I know your deeds. Behold I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little dunamis.'"

Same word. A little power. Just like, "For thine is the kingdom and the power." You have a little dynamite power. He's talking to perhaps the church as a whole (in this case Philadelphia), the angel or apostle, or perhaps everyone as individuals.

Now let's take another one.

II Timothy 1:7-8 ? For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of dunamis and love and discipline. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or me, His prisoner, but join me in the suffering for the gospel according to the dunamis of God.

The power, that dynamite power. And he says to Timothy, "God has given us the spirit of this dynamite power."

Let's take one more in the book of Acts in the first chapter. This is on the day that Jesus, the risen, glorified Jesus, re-ascended into heaven with His Father.

Acts 1:7-8 -- It is not for you to know the times or the epics which the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you shall receive DYNAMITE POWER when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

I have a question. He's talking about us. He's talking about them at that time and us. Do you feel the dynamite power? It kind of sounds somewhat Pentecostal. But do you feel that power? No? I don't either. There's something missing, certainly in terms of the ocean, the power of God putting the bounds on the ocean and all these things we think about when we think about Godly power which, if the scriptures be true, we also have. I do believe that I have conferred upon me the holy spirit. And it says, "When the Holy Spirit comes upon me I will have dunamis."

I don't move mountains, so there has to be something else. What's going on? This is really where I'm trying to get to -- talking about power and what power do you have right now, right at this moment. You're setting here in Jefferson City at the Feast of Tabernacles, whatever day of the feast it is. But we have some power. Power that we can exert right now. We have dynamite power within us, right now.

I have chosen two areas to discuss. You may think about it and maybe you can come up with other ways in sorting this thing out and looking at it.

The first one (which I'm not going to give a whole lot of time to because John Reid has already introduced these things for me yesterday) is that of service. Again, reflecting on times past, I remember messages at the Feast where we would be exhorted in no uncertain terms, "We need people for ushering or parking crews, or this crew or that crew or security." This was service. I'm not in anyway taking from the people who do those things.

I spent many hours standing out in Tucson, Arizona, in the blistering sun waving the cars by. It was service. There's no denying that. But it's not what I'm getting at. It's not the dynamite service, the dunamis that we have.

I think the best illustration that I have, that I could come up with, is, again reflecting on my past and my experiences within the church. This particular occurrence happened about twenty-five years ago in Pasadena. We were known as the Imperial A.M. church. At that time they had about six or seven large congregations in the Pasadena area. For whatever reason, I really can't recall what it was, but I was really in a depressed kind of state. I'm totally lost to explain why I was feeling as I was feeling. But I didn't get a whole lot out of the services that day. I couldn't tell you what the sermon was about. I couldn't tell you who preached the sermonette. I know we sang songs, but I couldn't tell you which ones.

But after services we were walking around the campus of Ambassador College and these people came along who I knew rather well. We started talking and walking together. And we ended up spending the rest of the day together. Dwayne and his family came with us and we came out to our house. We ate supper, the kids played and all that sort of stuff.

The point is that Dwayne and his family provided a service for me that day that, to this day I'm sure, he has no idea he provided. He didn't preach. He just listened to me and he spoke. He gave of himself. It really was a wonderful experience and it's obviously memorable to me. By the time they went home that evening, I felt entirely different. Again, why I was feeling down, is not important.

This is what I'm talking about with regard to service. Again, I don't think it needs a great deal of explanation. There is no scholarly thing involved. It's quite plain -- service.

The next thing ? John already introduced the area of forgiveness. Forgiveness. Here we are at the Feast of Tabernacles. It is something that we have all looked forward to all year. I know I have such an incredible anticipation. But, we are keeping the Feast in a way that we didn't used to years ago when we were literally scattered around a city. Often times we didn't get together. But here we are living together, quite literally, in the same building. We are sitting together, experiencing things together and we are quite close.

That has its good points, but it also has its dangers. It's very, very easy to offend. It's very, very easy to be offended. About a year ago I gave a split sermon on the subject of offense from the view point of the offender, giving caution to be careful what you do and what you say because it could be offensive. I think I brought out at that time that if I were to guess, about 99% of offenses come as a result of something that was done or said in jest.

You say something and you think in your mind, "Oh, this is funny." The person has a real sore spot there. He's heard the jest so many times and it causes offense. This is what we should be guarding against.

I want to look at it now from the offended standpoint.

Matthew 18:23-24 ? The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. And when he had begun to settle them, there was brought to him one who owed him ten thousand talents.

My New American Standard Manassite Version of the Bible has a footnote that says, "It's about $10,000,000 in silver, but worth much more in buying power." Exactly what that comment means, I'm not exactly sure.

We know the story. The man fell on his face and begged forgiveness. The ruler said, "Okay, your forgiven. Your debt is set aside." The man immediately went out and he began to deal in the opposite way with somebody who owed him money. The amount that he was owed was 100 denarii. Again, my faithful footnote says the denarii was equivalent to one days wage. This man owed him 100.

The bad guy has the second slave thrown into debtors prison. Finally, the king gets wind of it and deals harshly with him. What I really want to get to is the punch line in verse 35.

Matthew 18:34-35 ? His lord moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. So shall My heavenly Father also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart.

Let's go back to my original theme. Does this inspire awe in you as being the exercise of dynamic power, dunamis, dynamite? Doesn't it? I think it ought to.

Luke 23:33 -- When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified Him [Jesus the Christ our Savior], with the criminals, one on the right hand the other on the left. But Jesus was saying . . .

It's important to remember that Jesus was clear headed. He remained clear headed until the end and He was saying:

Luke 23:34 ? "Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Does this inspire awe? Do you think it took dynamic, dunamis, dynamite power for Him to do this? Well, it's inspiring to me. Every time I think about this or read it, I shake my head. It's fantastic. DYNAMITE POWER!

Do we need dynamite power? Do we need this power to exercise it in a way I'm talking about? You bet we do. I do, because there have been times when I felt offense for one reason or another. It gets in there and it's just like something right in the middle of your chest and you can't get it out. You need dynamite power to blow that out. But it says in scripture "You shall receive dynamite power, dunamis, when the holy spirit comes upon you."

Yes, we have been endowed with dunamis, dynamite power, and it is true that we can't limit the bounds of the oceans. We cannot move mountains. It is a very quiet kind of power that we have now. Nevertheless, we do have power or the scripture has failed. We do have this dynamite power. Our power is of a quiet nature, nevertheless explosive in the sense that it will explode into BUILDING relationships, BUILDING love and BUILDING the house of God. This thing will last, not only through the Feast. It will last eternally if we exercise it.

Now let me ask again the question I asked. Do you feel the power? Do you feel that dynamite power?