Welcome to 'THE NATHAN REPORT'! Today is a bit sad day for me. The idea I have a rail track on my cover art is because on 5th of June, one of my school mate who happened to be a good friend laid his life by committing suicide on a railway track. So this image is is in remembrance of him. I understand, suicide is an unforgettable and unforgivable sin, it is just, this person happened to be my very good friend, so emotions are present. The book of Ecclesiastes in 7:17 says, "Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?" The reason I am sad is, I believe my friend was not saved. Looking at my life, I feel I have missed so many wonderful opportunities to bring lost souls to Christ. I pray that Lord will make me strong and use me to share the word to many who are still un-reached.
Yet
again, God has given us another opportunity to come to his house.
Today we will be talking about "Authority and the Power of God".
Luke
10:19, "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions,
and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt
you."
When
God gives us power, we can do great and mighty things and bring the Kingdom of
God here. Bible talks about Christ where He takes authority of everything.
Luke
3:22, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a
voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Philippians
2:9-11, “9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
John
14:30, “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is
coming. He has no claim on me.”
We
need to understand that satan has a very limited authority. Bible says God has
given Christ all the authority that He can judge. Satan has something in us to
perplex us with, for we have all sinned; but when he would disturb Christ, he
found nothing sinful to help him. The best evidence of our love to the Father
is, our doing as he has commanded us. Let us rejoice in the Saviour's victories
over Satan the prince of this world. Let us copy the example of his love and
obedience.
Matthew
9:35, “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their
synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease
and every affliction.”
Mark
1:22, “And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who
had authority, and not as the scribes.”
Mark
2:10, "But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth
to forgive sins" -- He said to the paralytic,
Luke
5:20, And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
Matthew
17:18, “And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was
healed instantly.”
Mark
7:24-30, “24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and
Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not
be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean
spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a
Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of
her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is
not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she
answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's
crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the
demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying
in bed and the demon gone.”
Many
time we fail the authority that God has given us. When God created Adam, he was
given an authority. They misused the authority and fell into the trap of satan.
True faith and strong faith may work in various ways; but it shall be accepted
and approved by Jesus Christ. Sin is the cause of all our pains and sicknesses.
The way to remove the effect, is to take away the cause. Pardon of sin strikes
at the root of all diseases. Christ proved his power to forgive sin, by showing
his power to cure the man sick of the palsy. And his curing diseases was a
figure of his pardoning sin, for sin is the disease of the soul; when it is
pardoned, it is healed. When we see what Christ does in healing souls, we must
own that we never saw the like. Most men think themselves whole; they feel no
need of a physician, therefore despise or neglect Christ and his gospel. But
the convinced, humbled sinner, who despairs of all help, excepting from the
Saviour, will show his faith by applying to him without delay.
We
as a church need to understand, that we are in a middle of constant war because
our enemy satan is not happy. We should know our enemy and we need to know how
to tackle him.
How
many are there in our assemblies, where the gospel is preached, who do not sit
under the word, but sit by! It is to them as a tale that is told them, not as a
message that is sent to them. Observe the duties taught and recommended to us
by the history of the paralytic. In applying to Christ, we must be very
pressing and urgent; that is an evidence of faith, and is very pleasing to
Christ, and prevailing with him. Give us, Lord, the same kind of faith with
respect to thy ability and willingness to heal our souls. Give us to desire the
pardon of sin more than any earthly blessing, or life itself. Enable us to
believe thy power to forgive sins; then will our souls cheerfully arise and go
where thou pleasest.
We
are growing now a days but physically or financially, not spiritually. We are
not really connected to God that is why we find lots of people defeated and
depressed.
Scriptures
tells us that we need to equip ourselves.
1
Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made
alive.”
All
that are by faith united to Christ, are by his resurrection assured of their
own. As through the sin of the first Adam, all men became mortal, because all
had from him the same sinful nature, so, through the resurrection of Christ,
shall all who are made to partake of the Spirit, and the spiritual nature,
revive, and live for ever. There will be an order in the resurrection. Christ
himself has been the first-fruits; at his coming, his redeemed people will be
raised before others; at the last the wicked will rise also. Then will be the
end of this present state of things. Would we triumph in that solemn and
important season, we must now submit to his rule, accept his salvation, and
live to his glory. Then shall we rejoice in the completion of his undertaking,
that God may receive the whole glory of our salvation, that we may for ever
serve him, and enjoy his favour.
Let
us not be joined with ungodly men; but warn all around us, especially children
and young persons, to shun them as a pestilence. Let us awake to righteousness,
and not sin.
It
is one thing to fight with an enemy who you can see, but it is different to
fight an unseen enemy. Paul says in Ephesians 612, that our fight is not
against flesh and blood but the leaders of dark forces. You and I need to be on
guard. We cannot fight our enemy if we do not know our enemy. Many times we
talk about people that she/he is bad, the truth is that there are dark forces
behind her/him.
Here
we are talking about spiritual warfare. Satan wants to put us to sleep. Let us
not sleep. He convinces us. We should never say that "satan is working on
me", it will be a lie. Infact we are allowing satan to work on us. So
instead of surrendering to satan, we must surrender to God, our father.
Ephesians
6:10-17
"10
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the
whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the
devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the
rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in
the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having
fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of
righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness
given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of
faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17
and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
word of God."
I
would like to show how spiritual attacks are converted into physical
attacks. God built up Job's faith. God
knew Job's heart and knew that he will not give up. Today we need to trust God
like Job. Everything was taken away from Job, but he never gave up on his
faith. Job says, "Though he will slay me, I will not give up. I will trust
God." He knew deep in his heart that God will take care of everything.
How
many times do we give up? How many times do we stop praying? How many times do
we give up going to church? If you want to win, do not keep your eyes on the
circumstances. Fix your eyes unto the Lord. Satan tries to create
circumstances, but we need to fix our eyes on God.
There
is another example. Judas' focus was not on God. Peter's focus was on
circumstances that's why he denied Christ. Judas' Focus was on his greed. Let
us wear the armour of God unlike Judas. Judas was very close to God, but deep
down in his heart he was focused on his personal things.
We
are selective listeners. When pastor talks about giving, we are dumb. When
pastor talks about blessings? We are more than happy.
Judas
thought, what do I get? If we follow his story we notice that his eyes were
fixed on things and not God. At the end, he takes his own life and dies.
Illustration:
One day someone gifted us a food processor. We didn't used it for three years.
Then we planned one day to open it, but it didn't worked because the machinery
probably may have jammed. We still kept it for another year.
Jesus
knew that Judas will betray as he lacked faith in God but in worldly things.
Sometimes we do not know about our future, but God knows. Job did not stepped
back, and fought satan back and refused to give up on the Lord.
We
can be victorious if we ignore things of this world and fix our eyes on God.
Not all circumstance are from satan, but he can always put us into some kind of
trap.
The
world of God says, "Satan is a deceiver". We as a servant and child
of God, need to follow God with our whole hearts. And we need to rebuke the
satanic plans in Jesus name.
Today
we have Holy Communion, we are not going to say this man is doing this, that
lady is doing that, but, we all will be coming together and share the blood and
body of Christ today and cancel the plans of satan.
We
need to pray continuously. All authority is given by God to us. We need to take
this authority in the name of Jesus. If satan troubles us, we must say,
"In Jesus name I take authority and rebuke all evil plans." If we
think about the circumstance, satan may try to put us in trap, but blood of
Jesus is mightier than any plans of satan.
Illustration:
If two teams are playing soccer, they have the power that they can kick ball
and even push an opponent. More powerful team wins. Whereas, a referee has a
small whistle, but has authority to move one player from the field to the
locker room and can direct both teams.
Let
us all bind all power of satan and fix our eyes on Jesus. God has given us
authority. Satan is trying to fool people by bringing circumstances which
discourages us. Let us ask God to help us in our constant focus on the Lord.
Let
us all say, "My eyes are fixed on Jesus. Help me to take this authority in
‘Your name, Jesus’. I will not give up because of circumstances, instead I will
keep my focus on you. I pray that all satanic lie be cancelled in Jesus' name.
Father, I know that you have completed your good work in the lives of many
sinners, refresh me again. Let your will be done in my life and may my eyes be
always fixed on you. To close today's service, I have this beautiful song by Keith Green, "Oh Lord, You're Beautiful", so sit back and enjoy...
We
hope you enjoyed today's service, see you next week. God Bless!
Image Source: 7-Themes.com
Image URL: http://7-themes.com/6796935-gorgeous-train-track-wallpaper.html
All rights are reserved with "7-Themes.com" website. In case of any objections, we will remove the photo art without any questions asked.
