All right, and so what we started last week to look at is something that I preached a long time ago and I don't often re-preach, but this is something that as probably as long as I'm preaching in the future, I'm going to come back to and consider because I think it's important to us. We want to be spiritually fit Christians. We want to be impacting our world. to the best of our ability. But the fact is, somebody could be a very weak Christian and not dynamic in their ability to do anything for God. Somebody, on the other hand, could be dynamic. Somebody could have the power of God. And you look at the one, and I mean, they're just guns blazing for God. And on the other hand, you got somebody that you just wonder, are they even saved? What's going on there? Why aren't they what God desires them to be? Because I would suggest that God desires all of us to be running at full power. And even this morning, I'm going to preach on obtaining our potential with God's help that God desires us to obtain. And so we're looking at two main themes. One, how God affects your power. We started with that last week. And in speaking about that, we looked at the Holy Spirit. God is the person of power. You know, Terry Yee and the city of Jerusalem will tell you, be endued with power. from on high. And Jesus said, without me, you can't do nothing. And so there's no doubt this morning that God is that person of power. He gave the promise of power that I just mentioned. The disciples, three years in the school of Christ, they knew all the answers in a sense to the questions that they would face. But again, God said to them, Jesus Christ said to them, tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. Even though he had said to them, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." Right? And even though he'd given them that commission, he'd given them all the information that they needed, yet they had to wait until they had the person of power with them. Even the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ was done in dependence upon the Spirit of God for power. His teaching miraculous ministry began after his baptism. At his baptism, that's when the Spirit of God descended upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the work that he did, he did in the power of God, in the power of the Spirit of God. Now you might say, well, Jesus Christ is God. Yes, he is, but when he became a man, he became a man. He set aside the the power that was inherent in his being. He didn't set aside who he was, but he set aside the privileges of who he was, in a sense, and entered into his creation fully, becoming a man, doing what you and I need to do, and that's live in dependence upon God the Father, in prayer, and in dependence upon the Spirit of God for power, be filled with the Spirit of God. And so, and we did speak about that. Some are full of the Spirit of God, some are not. They were commanded when they look for deacons, they were commanded to find people full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to appoint over that office of deacon. And so they had to be able to look at people and say, well, that is a person that's filled with the Spirit of God. By the way, what would be evidences of somebody that's filled with the Spirit of God? Well, the fruit of the Spirit, right? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness. I mean, those are things that are observable, that you can look at and say they have the characteristics of somebody that is filled with God's Spirit. And I recently listened to a message of Dr. Ed Nelson, and I like what he said. He said, I used to think that, you know, if you ask me, what's it like for somebody that's filled with the Spirit? Well, they get up and they preach in the power of God. And he said, I don't think that anymore. I see somebody that demonstrates the Spirit of God in the way that they are in their marriage, in the way that they parent, in the way that they are a neighbor to somebody, that there is that consistent evidence of the Spirit of God in them, and I think that's a good way to consider it. And so we talked about God is the person of power, the Holy Spirit, but we ended last week with the first point about how we impact God's power. And it was a point about prayer in Sunday School that we were looking at. So prayer accesses wisdom. The Bible does say, James 1 verse 5, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that give it to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. And we talked about how the wise man is the man whose house is built upon a rock. We're talking about spiritual power. A man whose house is on the sand is very weak. A man whose house is on the rock is very strong. And so where does wisdom come from? Wisdom comes from God. So we ask God for it, obviously we gotta take it in when he gives it, but prayer acts as his wisdom. Talked about how prayer accesses God's Spirit. How much more shall my Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? Certainly we receive the Spirit of God initially through prayer. How? When we got saved. When we ask Jesus Christ to come into our heart and save us, that was a prayer of faith, and when we received the Spirit of God, he sealed us, he baptized us into the body of Christ, he indwells us, and then Paul commands us to be filled with the Spirit of God. So a prayer does that. Prayer accesses the promises of God. There are promises that God gave in the Word of God, such as the promise that Daniel claimed when he looked at it and said, we've been 70 years in the captivity. God said through Jeremiah, after 70 years, we're going to be set free. And yet when that promise is given in Jeremiah, it says, yet I will be inquired of thee for this. In other words, even though God said it, God says, you still have to ask. So even though I'm gonna do this, you still have to come to me in faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please him. He that comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, right? There are so many things that God desires to do in our lives, but they're accessed by faith. One of the greatest things that we could have in our church is men and women of faith that will go to God in prayer, that have a consistent prayer life. that are consistently able to say, you know what? I've seen God do something in my life. I've seen God work something out. Now I would say this, maybe the average Christian spends, I don't know, a few minutes in prayer. It would be very sad this morning to suggest that the times that believers pray average is something like this. Lord, thank you for this meal that you've provided for us, right? That'd be a very sad way to live our Christian life, just never opening our mouth to God. I mean, it's like never talking to the God that gave us life, never talking and thanking Him for all the good things that He's done. I mean, if you think about it, we're really, if that was the case, and I don't know if that's the case or not, but that's like living your life like an atheist. I mean, God's given us access to cry out to him and ask him to really do some things. It'd be a very sad thing if our prayer life is similar to that of an atheist. Now, it shouldn't be, but we shouldn't be surprised that as a church or as a family or as an individual, we're not really seeing God work dynamically if we don't have a real prayer life. So that'd be a great place to start, is building up that prayer life. And just to give you a quote that I think I shared last week as well, Thomas Chalmers said, read Edwards on prayer, Jonathan Edwards. He would counsel men. A season of revival in the church is generally preceded by a season of prayer. Jonathan Edwards, somebody that was used of God in the Great Awakening in the United States, the Spirit of God did an incredible work of revival there. he said, hey, the key is prayer. And we see that. You read revival history, and you read about people that are seriously seeking God in prayer. And so your prayer affects his power. And do you have a vital prayer line? Okay, now moving on in my notes here as we continue. Your purity affects his power, your purity. 2 Timothy 2 19 through 22 says, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth and some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work. Now, when somebody gets saved, does God cleanse them? It's not a trick question. Yes, completely, right? When somebody gets saved, God deals with all sin, past, present, and future in the sense of the wrath of God against it. It's done, it fell on Christ at Calvary. But after I get saved, am I sinless? No, I need to be sanctified, I need to continually be set apart. It's the whole foot washing thing that the Lord Jesus Christ did. He said, if I don't wash your feet, you have no part with me. Because you walk through life, there's gonna be soiling that takes place and you're gonna need to be cleansed of that so that you can have that close personal walk with God. Robert Murray McShane said, my church's greatest need is my personal holiness. As a minister, he looked at it and said, you know, the greatest thing, the greatest gift that I could give my church is to be a pure man that's a holy man that's walking with God so that God's blessing is unhindered, unfettered by any sin that might have been in his life. And so we think about this. How does purity, or rather impurity, impact our life? In areas of power, I want to be a dynamic Christian. I want to have an impact for God. How does impurity impact my life? Well, if I allow sin into my life, we allow sin into our lives, we have an unbelievable witness. So we try to tell somebody, you know, hey, you know what? You need to get saved. You need to accept Jesus Christ, your Savior. They're not really gonna believe us if we have in our life things that contradict what we're saying to them. You know the story of Lot. Lot is there in a wicked city and the Bible says he grieved his righteous soul. It seems that Lot was a saved man and Abraham had prayed if there'd be any, you know, 10 righteous people spared the city. There weren't 10 righteous people, but there were some righteous people and God in his mercy came and got Lot and his wife and two daughters, is it? And brought them out of that city, but Lot tried to get others to come with him. Genesis 19, 14. It says, Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-laws, which married his daughters. And he said, up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-laws. Why did it seem like Lot was mocking? Judgment's coming, we need to get right with God and get out of this city before the judgment comes. It's because Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom. He was a righteous man that kept his eye on sin and he followed sin. And then he got into the city itself. And then he became one of those that met in the gates of that wicked city. So Sonny Laws looked at that and said, I don't believe you. I don't believe you. He couldn't even reach his family because of the ungodliness that was in his life. He didn't have power because he had an unbelievable witness because of his sin. And then in a profitable walk, unprofitable walk. Luke 6 41, why beholdest thou the mote that's in thy brother's eye but perceiveth not? the beam that's in thine own eye and either how canst thou say to thy brother brother let me pull out the mote that's in thine eye when thou beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye thou hypocrite cast out first the beam out of thine own eye and then thou shalt see clearly to pull out the mote that's in thy brother's eye And so there might be a desire, hey, somebody's struggling with sin and as a parent, I wanna be able to help my kids if they're struggling with sin. As a pastor, I wanna be able to help my church if they're struggling with sin. As leaders in our church or members of our church, we have a young believer come to our church and they're struggling with sin. We want believers that can say, hey brother, I'm praying for you. I've been there, God has helped me to come to victory and God can help you too. So how do I get to that? Well, I gotta live in victory. I gotta ask God, God, this is not okay. I've got this sin, it's a besetting sin. It's continually knocking me down and I'm continually struggling with it. In fact, I'm defeated and I'm living in sin. And if I'm living in sin, I can't help somebody. And so, again, we're talking about power. We want powerful Christians. What do we need? We need a church that's sanctified because if you're not, we've got an unbelievable witness, we've got an unprofitable walk, we can't help others. And then we've got unanswered prayer. Psalm 66, 18 says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. If I treasure, if I regard, regard, it doesn't have the idea of if I sin against God, God will not hear me. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Regard is to look at it and say, you know, I know God's against this. I know this violates God's word. but I refuse to deal with this. Okay, if I do that, what? I can't go to God in prayer. Forget it. Don't pick up the phone. Don't bother to cry out to God. Why? Because God will not hear. He's not gonna listen. And he's just gonna say something like this, your iniquities have separated between you and your God so that he will not hear, right? Now we've already talked about prayer is power because prayer accesses so many things for the glory of God. And so if I've got sin in my life, it has a double impact in that I'm impure, that hurts me, but I can't pray. because I've let that impurity come between me and God. And so a harbored sin hinders prayer. So we've got unbelievable witness. If we've got sin in our life, we're not gonna deal with it. We've got an unprofitable walk. We can't help somebody. We've got unanswered prayer, and then we've got an impassable channel. We become blocked up in our ability to be a blessing to others with the water of life. John 7, 38 and 39. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. So out of their belly shall flow rivers of living water, and you're looking at that, I mean, an average person reads that and goes, what is that talking about? And so the Bible explains, it's the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is somebody that is gonna convey the water of life to others. And the Bible says, I mean very plainly right there, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. In other words, there ought to be life-giving ministry that's going out of that person, impacting this person for Christ, impacting this person for Christ. That ought to be normal. And you gotta ask, why isn't it happening? Channels only, blessed master, but with all thy wonders power flowing through us, thou canst use us every day and every hour. That well-acknowledged hymn that speaks about that outflow of the spirit of God. But listen, if there's sin in our life, That's not gonna happen. And so you look at these things and you think, wow, you know what? I wanna have an impact for God. Well, do I have a prayer life? Am I a person of prayer? I've got genuine time that I'm spending with God. Am I living in purity? By the way, it's possible to live in victory. Don't let Satan say, ah, you can never be a righteous person, never succeed in getting victory. That's absolutely false. There's no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with the temptation also make way to escape that you may be able to bear it. So, I mean, the promise is that no, you can have victory. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so I say to God, God, I wanna be somebody that has a dynamic impact for God, so what do I need? I need a prayer life. What do I need? I need purity. I need to make sure that I'm right with God. I need to make sure that I'm a godly man, okay? So those things impact us, your prayer life, your purity, and then the third thing that is on our side, your priorities affect his power. Your priorities affect his power. And so let me just start with priority of the work of God, all right? That God has first place and his work has first place in your life. Hebrews 12, one says this. Wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that's set before us. Okay, so we talked about sin. Obviously, sin is gonna hold me back, so I should deal with sin, I understand that. But that verse also speaks about weights. The weight is something that, it's not sin, But with that, I can't really do everything that I desire to do for God. I'm not gonna run my race well. Okay, so here's some questions I've got for you. So is work sin? God says in his word, if I don't provide for my family, I'm worse than a what? Infidel. So I absolutely, I've got a responsibility to provide for my family. True, okay, so we understand that's not sin. Is education sin? I think kids would love to answer this one, right? Is education sin? No. I mean, knowledge is from God and wisdom is a principle thing, but understanding has high value and very important. Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and men. So we look at that and say, no, that's not sin. is hunting and fishing sin. Well, there's some that are probably in Scotland that would like to say hunting is sin, but it's, you know, I go to the Bible and the Bible says, rice, Peter, kill and eat. All right. Fishing, same thing. I mean, God's given us the fish to eat and whatnot. So, I mean, that's not a sin. Is shopping sin? Husbands would like to say, yes. All right. Is shopping sin? No, I mean, a wise woman, what she do? Proverbs 31, she provides for her family, provides clothing for her family. So in their place, these things are not sinful. But let me ask a question about those things. Can you powerfully serve the Lord when you have no time to serve the Lord? I know somebody that would work 100 hours a week. Guess what, they couldn't be faithful to the house of God. They were very limited in what they could do for the Lord, even if they wanted to be there. If you're buying a lot of things, can you really invest in the church, really invest in missions? A lot of people would make that excuse. I can't give what God's put on my heart to give because this is my priority. I mean, I spoke about sport, you know, outdoor sport or, you know, fishing or whatever. You know, you got these sports, you know, that's okay. But if that consumes you, then you can't get involved in serving God. It's a weight. And so that's a good point to look at our life and say, what's holding me back? I want to achieve something for God. I want to do something great for God. But you know what? Is there something in my life that is more a priority than the work of God. We ought to look at it and say, by God's grace, and I understand there's going to be things that come up, things that we can't control, but if it's under our control, we ought to say, you know what? By the grace of God, when the church doors are open, I'm going to be there. By the grace of God, if there's opportunity to get involved in ministry, I'm going to participate, right? because it's a priority. And I really want to do something for God. I don't want to be a Christian that is one of those that just attends, just is there, doesn't really do anything for God. I want to achieve something for God. Priority of the work of God. The priority of the word of God. Moody's Bible, he had this written in it. This book will keep me from sin, or sin will keep me from this book. All right, we're talking about purity already, but what is the main cleansing agent for me? Thy word if I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. The word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. The word of God is such a important dynamic. Jesus said, a wise person is gonna be someone that hears these sayings of mine and doeth them. How do we do that? Well, again, be in the word of God. Some of this is gonna overlap a little bit with the morning message, and I think you're gonna get that and hear that, but this impacts our purity. We've already talked about how impurity impacts our power and our walk with God. And so priority of the work of God, that we put God first. Priority of the word of God, that it have a primary place in our life. And then the priority of God, God himself. Matthew 6, 24. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Okay, so God has to be first. And again, this is going to overlap with the morning message. And so I look at those things and I say, if I'm somebody that truly says, you know, Pastor, I want to be a dynamic Christian. I want to have an impact for God. I want to do something for God. Well, guess what? Your priorities affect that. If church is not a priority, If the word of God is not a priority, if God himself is not a priority, if he doesn't have first place, well guess what? I'm not gonna be a dynamic Christian. I'm not gonna be somebody that really has an impact for the Lord. And then your pride affects his power. Your pride affects his power. 1 Timothy 3 verse 6 says, not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. You know, we're studying the life of David and we look at Saul and King Saul was appointed by God and he had that privilege of being the first king. And Samuel looks at him, when God said, enough's enough, I'm done with you, he looked at him and he said, when thou wast little in thine own eyes, God exalted thee to be king, right? But when he became proud, all of a sudden God couldn't use him anymore. Again, pride is me thinking I've got it, I've got it, you know, I'm the man, I can do this. Humility is me understanding I can only do this by the grace of God. And if anything is accomplished through anything in my life, my kids, my family, it's only because of the goodness of God. It's not something I deserve. And I just, I thank God for it. And I'm continually in a place of dependence upon God. Because the Bible says God hates pride. These six things that the Lord hate, yea seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look. Why? Because pride says I don't need God. What's the number one sin keeping people from heaven? Pride. How did Satan fall from the place of privilege that God gave him as a premier angel in glory, a musical angel, the highest of angels? His great sin was I will pride. And so what do we need? We need humility. We need to get on our knees. You know, as a church, I pray God allows us to see some great things, but anything that God allows us to see, we got to get on our knees and say, not unto us, O God, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory. We ought to say with John the Baptist, he must increase, but I must decrease. We ought to say with Moses, when somebody else was exalted, envious thou for my sake, that's fine. Would to God, all God's servants had the power of God, like God has put upon me. There ought to be in a heart a deep dependence upon God. Why? Because pride destroys. Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. And humility is just that understanding of I am in complete dependence upon God. James 4 verse 6, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace unto the humble. Okay, so that's going to impact your power. You want to do something for God? Well, I mean, you become proud, that's it. But humility will access God's grace. God takes heed to the contrite heart. And then lastly, lastly, your perspectives affect his power, your perspectives or your experience of God. Ephesians 3.19 says, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Have you ever read that verse and thought, what does that mean? And to know the love of Christ, which exceeds knowledge. Do you know what that verse is speaking about? It's speaking about experience. And the peace of God, which passeth understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Somebody that's gonna be a dynamic Christian that has purity because they're walking with God, has a prayer life and they're seeing God work, has God as a priority and they are spending a lot of time with God. What does that do? That gives them a great sense of who God is. So that they know God. You know what? They're gonna have a dynamic impact for God because they're walking with God. You know, Ian Paisley said this. The church of Jesus Christ is largely sleeping, and she's saying, please don't wake me. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. We would have a dynamic church if we had prayer meetings like they used to have. And we had one of these, by the way, a couple months ago. Wasn't a big group of us, but we prayed for a couple hours. There was a great sense of the presence of God. The more things that we awake to God and our need for God and we're pure and we're praying and God has the priority and our perspective begins to change because we understand who God is. We're gonna see God answer prayer in ways that we've never seen. We already have. What other church do you know that in the last year has received close to 400,000 pounds for a building fund by faith? Not to begging people to give, but we did beg God to supply our need. And there's some great things that we can see God do. And that's gonna impact this idea of what I'm speaking about, perspective that we are interacting with God and we see God working, guess what? That's gonna impact us. W.M. Taylor said of Thomas Chalmers, He was not so much an instructor as a quickener. The other professors laid the materials in the minds of the students, but he brought and struck the match which kindled those materials into a flame that burned with an energy kindred to his own. Thomas Chalmers was a man of prayer. He would say to his students when they got to class, we're gonna pray. They'd just get on their knees and seek the face of God. He taught them to walk with God. His students were mighty men of God, the Bonner brothers, Robert Murray McShane, William Burns, to name a few of those that God blessed through his ministry. Those may not be familiar names to you, but these men were powerhouses for God. They had a heart for God. They understood what it was about. And I think what I'm speaking about here, if you have the perspective of God, then you've got the heart of God. Then it's like David, that you're burdened for what God alone can do in our community. Robert Moffat, veteran pioneer missionary from Scotland to Africa said this. He said, we want in zeal. We don't have it. We don't have the zeal. The work of conversion or endeavors to convert sinners is not so much the primary object of our souls as it ought to be. If I speak for myself, I must say that I do not feel that sympathy for the awful condition of my fellow men, which their state ought to excite in every Christian bosom. When I look at the man of sorrows, his toilsome days and midnight prayers, and the burning zeal of the first ministers of the gospel, I feel as if I had not the same mind or spirit. But Robert Moffat was, I think, the one as well that said, either here or his son-in-law, David Livingston, said, I see in the rising sun the smoke of a thousand villages that have not heard of Christ. And if we really had what I'm speaking about, we'd have some young men, we'd have some adults with vision that would look out and say, Pastor, we gotta reach Midlothian for Christ. We gotta reach southern Scotland for Christ. We've got to reach Scotland for Christ. We've got to reach the United Kingdom for Christ. Pastor, we've got to have a greater impact. And I just say this, I don't think we're there. I don't think we're there unless you're weeping in prayer for the power of God for this nation. When's the last time you wept in prayer, asking God, God, break through, break through? When's the last time you cared enough to weep? Listen, if we saw people cast into hell, wouldn't we weep? wouldn't we beg, wouldn't we plead, hey, you gotta get saved. And see, that impacts our power. And so we stop and think about it this morning and think, man, God's the person of power, but here's the checklist, and if as you go through this checklist, you think, you know what, I've got a need there, write it down, and ask God to help you work on it. Is it your prayer or your prayerlessness that's affecting his power? See, you're either having an impact or you're not impacting. Is it your purity or your impurity that's affecting his power? God's given us everything that we need to live godly in an ungodly world. There's no excuse. We can't blame the internet. We can't blame immodesty. We can't blame a temptation of this world and gambling and all the things that are out there, all the vices that are there. We can't blame other things. Is it your purity? Is it your priority for Christ or against Christ? You know, is church important? Is the Bible important? Is God important? I mean, if you want to be a dynamic Christian, you ought to say, all for Jesus, all for Jesus. Let my feet run in his ways and be faithful to the house of God, faithful to the word of God, faithful to God. Is it your pride or your humility that's affecting his power? Can God use you? Is there a sense of great dependence upon God or is there a sense of, I could do this? Is it Christ's perspective or your perspective? Do you have anything of his heart for his cause? And so God help us, we need powerful Christians. We could do it, I believe that, but we gotta look at these things and say, God help me to be a dynamic Christian. Let's pray. Father, may the spirit of God take the word of God and put it deep into our hearts. They said about the early church, these that have turned the world upside down have come hither. Father, I think some people would be surprised that we're here. I think they'd be shocked. And I didn't realize that there was a church there. I didn't realize that my neighbor was a believer. I didn't realize that that person even had anything to do with Christ. But I pray that would change. Father, what we need is the power of God. And Father, for that, first of all, somebody needs to get saved. They're not gonna have victory over sin if they're not saved. They don't have the Holy Spirit. But Father, having the Spirit of God, we need to consider these things and say, you know, by God's grace, I wanna have the power of God upon my life. And so I pray for that. Lord God, use your word, bless it to our hearts this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Amen, all right, we've got seven minutes, seven minutes before our morning service. All right, start at 11. Everyone will want one of those song sheets, and I'll try to remind Tommy if Tommy comes this morning. But we'll want a song sheet. Benson, you can turn on the music if you want. All right. Good morning, Evelina. Okay, we're ready to go again here. Trust that you enjoyed your science school hour.