Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: There's an old statement that pastors have heard over the years: God's commandments are his enablements. And that's an important thing to remember. Don't forget, if God says do it, then he'll give you the wherewithal. But you got to remember, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador with God's formula for success in all you do. It's been said you can accomplish anything in this life as long as you give God all the glory and all the credit. And there's no stopping what a person can do as long as they want God to get the glory.

When Zerubbabel got word from God in Zechariah 4:6, an important truth was revealed: that what he accomplishes will be done by God's power alone, and not anything he can do on his own. From today's word, Pastor Brett Meador illustrates how the same message applies to us today. Yet all too often, we still make common mistakes when it comes to allowing God to work on our own lives.

Brett Meador: This is one of those scriptures you've sang, it's one of those scriptures you've read and heard. Maybe if you're not even a Christian, you might have heard this phrase because it's pretty famous. It's Zechariah chapter four and it's verse six.

It says this: "Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." What an important theme. This is rudimentary for Christianity to know that without him, how much can we do?

The answer to that is, how much can you do apart from the Lord? Nothing. The Bible says without him we can do nothing. But with him, how much is possible? All things, everything. Everything is possible. It's amazing how this is just a truth from the scripture. And so, here in our text, when the Bible says it's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, sayeth the Lord, this is something we need to acknowledge.

And the problem is, the older we get as Christians, sometimes we start to think that we have done something of our own ingenuity or our own willpower or stick-to-itiveness. And we start to take credit. And some of you might even be thinking, "Well, Brett, I have worked hard and I have done some things on my own."

But you gotta remember when it gets down to the very basics, who gave you a brain? Who gave you lungs? Who gave you feet to walk and hands and who made your hands work? That's the Lord who does all that stuff. So when we start taking credit, saying, "Well, I did this and I did that," it's an interesting thing because really, the older I get and the more I think about it, if I'm cognizant of it, I realize really without him, I can do nothing. But it's not by might, nor by power, but it's by the spirit, sayeth the Lord.

In fact, James 1:17 says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither any shadow of turning." I love that in James 1:17. The idea is every good thing that the Lord does, it comes from the Lord up above.

Well, I want to go over a few mistakes that we make when it comes to this notion, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, sayeth the Lord of hosts. You can jot these down if you want. And the first one is, mistake number one: we attempt to do what we do apart from the Lord. When you start taking a venture of faith, you've got to make sure that you're going with the Lord on this one.

And it's so easy to get ahead of the Lord or to think you can do stuff even though God's not in it. You think he's given you enough ingenuity to do it yourself, so you do it yourself. That's one of the big mistakes when you kind of forget this: it's not by our own might, our own power, but by my spirit. That's mistake number one.

Mistake number two is this: being unaware that it was the Lord in the first place. We forget that when we're doing something, and maybe even when you were starting out you were aware of your shortcomings and your weaknesses. And so you were praying, "Oh, Lord, help me with this." And the Lord helps you with this.

But shortly thereafter you start thinking, "Look what I've done. I've done a pretty good job here because of my ingenuity and my smarts and I'm actually doing pretty good on my own. I don't even really need the Lord because look, I'm doing it all by myself." Meanwhile, the Lord's making everything happen behind the scenes, and you forget that it really is the Lord that's giving you the strength and the wisdom and the right decisions. It's all the Lord.

But as soon as you forget that, it gets you into real trouble. Every good gift, every perfect gift comes from the Father of lights, the Bible says. Well, watch out for that mentality. In fact, Psalm 75 verses 6 through 7 says, "For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another."

It is the Lord who raises people up. Don't forget that if you're being blessed or raised up into power, if you're a CEO or the boss or if you've been successful athletically, don't forget the Lord is the one who did that. And you know this to be true. We've seen people go up and down, come and go, and a lot of people thought, "Well, I would never fail," but they end up failing because they think it's their own might or power.

So, point number two, being unaware that it was the Lord in the first place, that's kind of a problem. Now, there's another mistake kind of related to that that I'm going to talk about in a minute. But let's go to mistake number three: not attempting anything because you don't think you can. You're afraid because you don't really realize it's not by your might.

See, this is kind of the opposite of attempting to do stuff apart from the Lord. That's presumptuous. Being unaware that it was the Lord in the first place, that's pride. But the other side of the coin here is that there's a lot of people who say, "I don't know enough, I'm not talented enough, I'm not strong enough." And so you don't do anything because you're afraid you don't have enough talent or gifting or skill.

But see, that's equally a mistake when it comes to this because it's not by your might or your power, but it's by the spirit, sayeth the Lord of hosts. Those that don't think it's the Lord will be timid to step out with new ventures of faith. "I don't have the skills." And the answer to that is none of us do.

I remember starting teaching the Bible. I'm so thankful that I started teaching the Bible when I was 12 years old because I didn't know any better at the time. At the age of 12, I thought, "Well, there's low expectations. Oh, he's a 12-year-old, he wants to teach the Bible. Okay, let the cute little kid teach the Bible." And nobody had expectations.

I think I would have been afraid if I were an older person saying, "I'm now going to exposit the holy scriptures." I'd think, "Nah, I'm not going to do that." And that's what some of you are thinking right now. Like, "I'm not going to go share the Bible or teach the Bible. I don't have the knowledge." Well, welcome to the real world. None of us have the knowledge. Here's this holy book that's perfect. And whenever a human handles it, we mess it up.

But good news, the Lord says, "I will use the weak and the foolish to confound the wise," even when it comes to the teaching of God's word. I love that the Lord uses people that are very flawed. And when you realize it's all the Lord, that tends to give you a little more confidence to step out to do what you're called to do. Just ask Moses.

Moses is the guy who thought he didn't have the talent or the gifting, so he didn't want to do something that God was telling him to do. "I can't do it." Remember there in the book of Exodus? It's quite a story there where the Lord, in the burning bush scene where Moses is content just to be a shepherd out in the middle of nowhere, Midian.

And the Lord comes to him in a burning bush, says, "Moses." That's if you watch the Cecil B. DeMille version. He takes off his sandals for he's standing on holy ground. And then the Lord says, "Moses, I've called you to lead my people out of Egypt, out of slavery." And do you remember what happens after the Lord says that?

Moses argues with him for like three pages in the Bible. It's just this back and forth, "But I can't. I don't have the... who am I to go talk to? Who am I?" And the Lord says, "Who am I?" That's what the Lord says. Moses keeps saying, "Who am I? Who am I?" And the Lord says, "Who am I?"

And then he says, "But I stutter. I'm slow of speech. I'm not a good articulate speaker." And the Lord says, "Who made your mouth?" Like this funny conversation where Moses is just whining about how ill-equipped he is to be the leader. And the Lord's saying, "It's not about you. It's about what I want to do through you. It's not by your might, Moses, or your power, but it's by my spirit that's going to make you do one of the greatest things that have ever been done."

You gotta give it to Moses. He leads 2.5 million people out of slavery and wanders in the wilderness with that group of people tent camping for 40 years and brings them right to the doorstep of the promised land. That's an amazing thing. But Moses would be the first one to tell you that wasn't by his might or by his power, but it was by the spirit that he was able to do that.

We could go on and on. In fact, our text here, let's go back to Zechariah chapter four, verse six. Our text here tells us... let's read it again. It says, "Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel." Zerubba-who? Remember Zerubbabel? Now, if you're a Jewish guy, you'd say Zerub-Babel. That's the way you'd say his name.

But we could call him Bubba for short. But he's the guy, remember? He's the guy that built the second temple period temple. And we've talked about him before. Ezra, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, those guys, all part of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Zerubbabel was mostly about the temple. And that's what we know him for. And here in Zechariah, the reason his name comes up here with this "not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, sayeth the Lord of the hosts," why is Zerubbabel brought up here?

The answer: he's afraid. And he feels like he doesn't have the materials, he doesn't have equipment and the talent and the wherewithal to finish the temple. And it's true. He's got enemies all around him that want to do him in. He's got lack of resources and it's not going to be as glorious as the Solomon temple. And he's got all kinds of things.

Now, Zerubbabel had already started the temple by this time, but it's been sitting unfinished for 16 years. So Haggai and Zechariah come on the scene. "Come on, you guys. You gotta get going." And you can almost hear Zerubbabel saying, "I can't, man. We just don't have enough resources. And we're going to get killed by our enemies and it's going to be... this is scary." And here Zechariah is saying, "Don't you understand, Zerubbabel? It's not by might, nor by power, but it's by my spirit."

See, the context of this verse is our mistake number three that we're talking about, where people don't do stuff because they think they don't have enough talent or equipment or wherewithal or resources. And they make the mistake of not attempting anything because they're afraid. Hope that's not you and I hope that's not me. I wonder how many things you and I have missed out on because we're afraid.

Maybe you're a college student and you got that college professor that's constantly bashing the Bible and talk about all the flaws and errors of scripture. And you're just an 18-year-old kid and your professor is this ancient old guy that's been saying the same thing to a bunch of 18-year-olds for the last 30 years.

And he's got his little atheist arguments all down and you're like, "Who am I to say anything to this professor? Man, he's just going to shred me academically, intellectually. Why would I say anything?" Remember, it's not by might, not by power, and I might add, not by your own intellect or brain power. It's by my spirit, sayeth the Lord of hosts.

I wonder if maybe some of you have missed opportunities to just be bold and speak the truth. It's not just the college student. I feel bad for the college student because these professors get away with murder. They have a very thin veneer of argument that looks very impressive, like they're airtight solid. But you break through that veneer and they have horrible arguments and they're really weak.

But that's the problem is I think people are afraid to stand up and just say what is true today. And a lot of Christians think, "I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't have enough intellect to hang with these people." But you gotta remember, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

There's an old statement that pastors have heard over the years: God's commandments are his enablements. And that's an important thing to remember. Don't forget, if God says do it, then he'll give you the wherewithal. So Zerubbabel, he was told "build the temple." And so he does it and the Lord blesses him with that.

Don't forget that. If you've been commanded to do something, maybe it's something as simple as, "I want you to teach Sunday school." "But I don't know the Bible very well." That's a great way to learn the Bible. Study up and prepare for your lessons. And it's amazing how much the Lord, not by your might, not by your power, the Lord will give you understanding of the Bible. And sometimes I think that'll only come second after your willingness to do what God's called you to do.

Well, mistake number four, and this is our final mistake that I want to cover: taking the credit for what God has done. That's also a mistake. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit. So when you say, "Look what I have done," see how it's related to point number two, being unaware it was the Lord in the first place? That's the mistake Samson made. So he just kept on going thinking it was his own strength and he ends up being totally wiped out.

But even more importantly, there's a thing where pride creeps in. And you start looking at your life, saying, "You know, I've done a pretty good job." And it's pretty subtle. And it becomes so subtle that sometimes you're the last one to see it. But everybody watching from the outside, they all see it.

It's been said you can accomplish anything in this life as long as you give God all the glory and all the credit. And there's no stopping what a person can do as long as they want God to get the glory. But if you want to stop your ministry and success, then start taking the credit for it. That's a good way to put the brakes on your successes: take credit and glory for it.

I remember the story of a farmer taking a patch of ground in the Midwest and making it a fruitful farm. He had fields of alfalfa and hay and some cattle. And he had the pastor and his pastor's wife came over for dinner one night. And the farmer showed them, "Look at my alfalfa field, look at this." And the pastor says, "Oh, the Lord is so good to make this alfalfa grow."

And the farmer said, "Yeah." Then he took him over to the hay field, said, "Look at all this hay. We just baled this up and, man, that's a lot of work out here we did." And the pastor said, "Oh, the Lord is so good to bring you this hay and make it so you have a way to sell and earn some money. Lord is good. Praise the Lord."

And he showed the cattle and again, the pastor's like, "Oh, praise the Lord." And the farmer somewhat frustrated, he looked at the pastor and he finally said, "Pastor, I wish you could have seen it before the Lord was doing it by himself."

Now, see, some of you might say, "Yeah, Brett, I feel like that farmer. Come on, I've done some work here. It's not just the Lord." And you might see a certain truth in that, but here's the thing you have to remember. The Lord is the one who gave you everything you need to do... like let's take the farmer, for example. He gave him the back to work the field, and he gave him the brains to know how to raise cattle. And it starts before the ground was even tilled.

And sometimes we end up forgetting and we start taking the credit. I think Nebuchadnezzar is the classic example of that in Daniel chapter four. Remember that where Nebuchadnezzar's walking through Babylon, saying, "Look at the beautiful Babylon that I have built. Look at this amazing city that I have made." And the Lord causes Nebuchadnezzar to lose his marbles.

He ends up with a condition called boanthropy, where he takes on animalistic behavior. He suddenly thinks he's a cow. And he's out chewing the cud with cows out in the field for seven years. Can you imagine people riding by in their chariot and they're like, "Who's the guy out there on the all fours with the cattle? Oh, that's our former king. He's out there thinking he's a cow. Moo."

But after seven years, Nebuchadnezzar gets his mind back and he says, "That was my bad. Every good thing comes from the Lord." And he said, "Those who walk in pride, the Lord is able to abase." Nebuchadnezzar had to learn that lesson the hard way. Taking credit for what God was actually doing.

And trying to do that stuff apart from God is a huge mistake. It's not only that you might fail, you might even see some success, but you won't find the fulfillment in the things you're doing unless God is the one doing it. You want to make sure that everything you're doing, you're doing heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men, Colossians 3 says.

Let me finish with one more passage. Why don't you flip over to John chapter 21? There in the New Testament, Gospel of John 21. There's a story there of Jesus. And it says here in John 21, verse one, "After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and on this wise showed he himself."

"There were together Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. And Simon Peter said unto them, I go a fishing." Now, this is a mistake, Peter. God already gave them direction. Jesus told Peter and the disciples where they were supposed to be and what they were supposed to be doing.

But it wasn't fishing. So Jesus is now... he died on the cross, was buried, rose from the ground. And now Peter's saying, "I'm going back to my old job before Jesus came to me." You see the problem here? "I'm going fishing." And oftentimes when you do that, you're a bad influence on others.

It says here Peter says, "I'm going fishing," and they, all the other disciples, said, "We'll go with you." And they went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. And then Jesus said unto them, "Children, have you any meat?" In other words, did you catch any fish?

And one of the great miracles of the Bible, fishermen answering accurately. They didn't try to tell about the one that got away or any of that. They said, "No. We haven't caught anything. No." Verse six: "And he said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw in the net for the multitude of fishes."

"Therefore, that disciple whom Jesus loved"... anybody know who that was? Who's writing this? John. This cracks me up. "The disciple that Jesus loved," yours truly. It says, "The disciple Jesus loved, who said unto Peter, It's the Lord." In other words, John's saying, "I'm the one who first recognized it was Jesus."

"Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his fisher's coat unto him, for he was naked, and he did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship; for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fishes. And as soon as they were come to land, they saw a fire with coals, and there fish laid there on with bread."

By the way, do you ever wonder what Jesus's fish tasted like? I bet it was really good. He's a good chef, he did all things well, the Bible says. But I digress. So he's there with the fish frying on the grill there. Verse 11, it says Simon Peter went up and drew the net to the land full of great fishes, 153.

Do you ever wonder why the Bible gives us specific numbers? Who cares that it was 153? They'd already said it was a multitude of fishes. Why 153? I believe every word in the Bible's there for a reason. We don't all know the reasons, but this is one I wonder if we found out back in the '70s when a marine biologist did a big study in the sea of Galilee of the fish and the fossils and all the evidence.

Guess how many species of fish there were in the first century during the time of Christ? There were 153 species of fish they found. I think that's great. The same number here of this story, that's kind of cool. Especially when Jesus was saying, "I'm going to make you fishers of men," and the idea is all men of every race, kindred, tongue, nation. It's a great illustration.

But anyway, I love this invitation. It says, verse 11, so they pulled the fish, 153, and for all there was so many, yet not the net was broken. And here's the key: Jesus said, verse 12, unto them, "Come and dine." And none of the disciples durst ask him, "Who art thou?" knowing it was the Lord. In his resurrected form, here's Jesus.

Now, here's the thing as we close. Jesus was the thing that they needed. Jesus was the one that made their life worth having. As soon as they went and did their own thing, their own way, by their own might, by their own power, they went back to the old thing they were doing, fishing, they found themselves empty, lacking, not contented with life.

But as soon as the power—remember, Jesus is part of the Holy Trinity: God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit—Jesus came back into their life and suddenly they had fish. It's not by might, nor by power. And the disciples had to learn this again, that you don't start doing stuff in your own energy, in your own effort. You have to trust the Lord and make sure he gets all the credit and the glory for what he's done.

By the way, as we close, the one thing that this verse is more true than any single topic, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, sayeth the Lord of hosts. There's one truth that's extremely important that you need to know, and that is of all things you don't want to mess this up on is your own salvation.

Because you cannot save yourself from hell and make it into heaven by your own strength or power. Of all the things you mess up on in this life, don't mess up on that one. The only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ and that's of course why John 14:6 declares... Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and life. No man comes to the Father but by me."

It's Jesus. He's the one with the power that gets you into heaven. So make sure and don't try to be prideful thinking, "I'm good enough. I can make it into heaven by my own ingenuity." Bible says no, not one person will do that. So of all the mistakes you make on this truth, don't make that mistake. You gotta accept Christ, recognize you're a sinner before God—that's repentance—and then accept the gift as Jesus died on the cross for your sins, rose up from the grave and lived to intercede on your behalf. That's how you get to heaven. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit. Amen.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador applying the important truth first given to Zerubbabel in today's word that serves as an important reminder for believers today, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved: the Lord Jesus.

And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in a moment. But first, our teacher Brett Meador is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Each day, Pastor Brett will bring you a verse-by-verse study of God's word. If you missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at TodaysWordRadio.com. That's TodaysWordRadio.com.

All right, I have Pastor Brett with me now. Brett, I know you talk about the importance of studying God's word, and I'm sure there's somebody listening who might be thinking, "I really want to study the Bible, but I don't feel like I have the time to do it or maybe they just don't know where to start." What encouragement can you give to that person?

Brett Meador: Well, Kurt, I would first say don't be intimidated. The Bible is a big book and I think some people would say, "Man, it's too big, I don't know if I can do that." But you don't have to conquer the Bible in a week. In fact, I don't think it was really written in a way where you're supposed to conquer it in a week.

It's a book that you can spend the rest of your life studying and reading. And I'd encourage someone who's brand new just to begin in the Gospel of John. It's such a clear, powerful depiction of who Jesus really is. You can read just for five minutes a day. That's all you need. And even set a timer if you have to.

But add a minute or two as you get more comfortable reading the word of God and before long, you'll look up and realize you're spending real powerful, meaningful time in the word. And when you read, ask the simple questions: what does this teach me about God? What does this scripture show me about myself or things that I need to fix? Or is there something I need to obey God's word in?

As you consistently go through the word, it's not about the quantity, it's more of the quality of the time that you spend in the word. Just a little bit of reading the scripture, it's powerful, it's life-changing. And remember, it's not just homework. It's heart work. The Lord wants to work in your heart. And it's not just information, it's to get to know the Lord personally. So the Lord would invite you to read his word as almost a love letter from him to you. So that's the way I'd encourage people to read it.

Kurt: Oh, thank you, Pastor Brett, for that encouragement and really a great plan to get started reading God's word each day. Well, I want to mention that if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or Today's Word, just go to TodaysWordRadio.com. That's TodaysWordRadio.com. Well, next time, Pastor Brett will return to the rebuilding of the temple in the book of Zechariah, and we'll look into the fifth in a series of visions shown to Zechariah.

Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.