St Michaels Church Podcast
God of Transforming Power | Anneliese Blackwood Lilly | 28.07.24
This morning's reading is a selection of verses from the Psalms, Psalm 20, Psalm 44 and Psalm 127. The first extract is from Psalm 20 verses 6 to 8, which you, if you have one of the church Bibles, can be found on page 5.5.3, Psalm 20. Now this I know the Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some inhorses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and for, but we rise up and stand firm. Continuing with Psalm 44 verse 3. It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory. It was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face for you loved them. The final passage is from Psalm 127 verses 1-2. Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat. For he grants sleep to those he loves. This is the word of the Lord. Good morning, everyone, and it's wonderful to see so many familiar faces here this morning, and of course a very well and welcome to everyone watching online. Well it may be easy to know that I was originally planning to talk on God as a God of rest. Only I turned up last Sunday to find that Psalm had beaten me to it. So all I can say is we must all go away and listen to Psalm sermon again, because clearly God has a message there that he wants to get across to us. So into stead today I will be speaking about how God is a God of transforming power and how that affects our lives. But I think before we start today we should begin with a prayer. Lord, I pray that I would be led by your spirit and be faithful to your word. Let us have ears to hear and a heart to receive. Amen. We do not serve and inert God. We serve a God of transforming power. And throughout the scripture we see how God takes a week and makes him strong, turns defeat into victory and overcomes death and brings life. There is an incredible expansion and multiplication effect when God is involved. And one of the exquisite things about God's design is that he's woven this principle into nature so that accessible illustrations of the transforming power of God are available all around us. We see the tiny acorn becoming the mighty oak, a smidgen of yeast leavening the whole loaf. We even have a universe that continues to expand with increasing rapidity. Everything God touches comes into abundant life. And the snippets of the Psalms that we've read today represent examples of that. When God intervenes, failure is transformed into victory. When God builds a house, it stands. Now there is a considerable amount that I could say on this matter this morning, but you will be delighted to hear that I don't intend to set out a comprehensive exegesis at 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Instead, I would like to draw out four ways in which us having a revelation of God as a God of transforming power impacts our daily lives. First, and perhaps most obviously, it gives us hope whilst we're still waiting for God's victory to be made manifest in our lives. I think there are times when we can feel overwhelmed by the task in front of us or the situation that we're in. We see the vision, we see the promised land, but we don't necessarily really see how we're going to get there. We get battered, we get worn down, we get the spiritual equivalent of blistered feet. But don't give up. Don't get weary of well-doing, persevere because God is our victory. He can bring life into the darkest situation. In fact, it is his very nature. And so, I don't know your situation today, but you may feel like the widow who encountered the prophet Elisha. Ma, who was mired in debt, was about to lose her family. But like the widow, God is more than able to redeem your situation, to take your small jar of oil and to multiply it and to bless it until it can no longer be contained. The second thread that I want to pull out is that it is not our job or our responsibility to secure the outcome. Our job is to be obedient and then to God and then let him transform the situation. He will provide the victory. And we see that pulled out from Assam 127 that we read earlier. Unless the Lord builds a house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the gods watch it in vain. It's important to take a moment to grasp the fact that it is for God to transform the situation, because at the moment, it's a very counter-cultural notion. The prevalent viewpoint is that we are, and forgive the air quotes, to make it happen. However, in God's Kingdom, that's how it works. In fact, the opposite is true. And I think that's captured really pithily by St. Paul in One Corinthians, chapter three, verse six, where he says, "I've planted a polished water, but God gave the increase." Yes, of course we play a part. We are the vessels for God's work here on earth. But ultimately, it is for God to make the change. I think this is really significant because we can at times tie ourselves in knots, trying to secure an outcome when, in fact, we need to lean back on God and rely on God's power to transform the situation. Now, they misunderstand me. I'm not saying that we sit around and do nothing and say, "Oh, it's all God's problem." I'm not saying that. Paul did plant a polished water. But we ought to do our part and then put it in God's hands to trust him, to acknowledge that only he can bring the increase. We ought to cast the care of securing the outcome on the Lord. And the dangers of trying to make it happen are well illustrated by Abraham, who, coincidentally, we've been studying in children's church over the last few weeks. So I've been fairly familiar with the story. God gave Abraham a great vision. God said he was going to have a son and his descendants were going to be more numerous than the stars. And he specifically said, "Your son will be born by Sarah." And as you can imagine, he received that vision with great joy. But then he waited. And then he waited. And then he thought the time had come for him to make it happen. And we all know what the outcome of that. He had Ishmael. That was not what God wanted. That was not the blessing that God had planned for him. And in fact, it caused problems. Abraham needed to wait for God to fulfill his promises, for God to bring the increase, for God to bring the victory. And to be honest, I don't feel that I can be particularly critical of Abraham because it's incredibly challenging to sit and wait for God to bring the victory. But God does keep his promises, and we must wait on the Lord. Thirdly, the fact that it is God who brings the victory, that God, who is the transforming power, is liberating for another reason. It means that we don't have to be brilliant or learned or a great orator or in fact, have anything at all to distinguish ourselves for God to be used in a powerful way to change the world. In fact, we see throughout the Bible that God never picks the obvious choice to bring about a great victory. Now, there are obviously a myriad of examples that I could pick here, but I just want to draw your attention to the story of Gideon. And I hope you'll indulge me while I read a couple of verses from the Book of Judges chapter 6 and verse 12. "When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, 'The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.'" Now, just stepping back for a moment, at that time, nothing could book further from the truth. Gideon was one of many Israelites hiding in the mountains and caves from the Midianites, and at the time he was spoken to, he was actually hiding in a winepress, threshing the wheat, to conceal it from the Midianites. He wasn't fighting anyone, and so Gideon responds as follows. "Pardon me, my Lord," Gideon replied, "but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt? But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian." And frankly, that's what some of us can feel sometimes. "God, how can you say you are with me? I didn't see you in this situation, and things are going bad to us." But the Lord turned and said, "Go in the strength you have, and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?" Gideon's documents. "Pardon me, my Lord," he replied, "but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I'm the least in my family." In essence, God, seriously, you have the wrong person. I am the last person you should be picking, and nobody would pick me. But here is the critical response. The Lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive." God makes it clear that he can use anyone and transform anyone for his glory. It's not relevant what you can do, but what God can do through you. It's his power that matters. And this is a constant refrain throughout the Bible. We see it with Moses. God's response to Moses when he questioned why he should go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the Israelites go was, "I am coming with you, and I am who I am." God transforms the situation. We see it with David. He was described as little more as a boy, little more than a boy who couldn't even walk in armor. And you can picture the ridiculous disparity, can't you? This little boy with a couple of rocks and a rudimentary sling facing up against a giant, a seasoned warrior glistening in armor. One earth made David think that he could face that. Well, we know, because David said to Goliath, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord almighty." No, man. Don't worry if you're too small. If you don't think you're important enough or you're relevant in the eyes of man, God says that if I am with you, you have the victory. The application of God's transforming power to our meager offering produces something with explosive impact. And finally, when we acknowledge that the victory comes from the Lord and from Him alone, it stops us putting our faith in the wrong things. We read earlier in Psalm 20 verse 7, "Some trust in horse chariots and summon horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God." I think it's fair to say we are a church full of extremely competent people and it's incredibly easy to slip into thinking that we can rely on ourselves or even perhaps our money or our status in society, but the Lord makes clear that that is a fantasy. These things are not going to save us. These things don't guarantee the victory. The Bible is replete with examples of a vastly superior force, the order of one being obliterated and a handful of men conquering a vastly superior army. The difference between success and failure is God. We cannot rely on our own strength. We must keep our eyes on the only thing that can be guaranteed to secure victory. We must trust in the name of the Lord. So in conclusion, it is a glorious thing that we serve a God of transforming power. Not a God constrained by the limits of our own power or strength, but a God whose strength is made perfect in our weakness. If we commit our ways to the Lord, put our trust in Him, He is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or think through His power at work within us. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]