When the Power is Out — E.A. Johnston

We had just experienced a strong set of thunderstorms in our community, and it was Sunday morning, and my teenage daughter sent me a text informing me that one of the big Baptist churches in town had canceled church service that morning because the power is out at the church.

The Church’s Loss of Spiritual Power

I sent her a text back replying, the power went out long before that. And it's true friends, there are many churches still open and operating, but they lost their power years ago. The deacons held a meeting and decided they could get by better on money and manpower than on God and Holy Ghost power.

The Prayer Meeting as the Church’s Powerhouse

Many churches today operate just like a business and are run by CEOs, but the church of years gone by didn't operate that way because they still had the powerhouse of the church still in operation back then, and that was the weekly prayer meeting.

You could walk down the hall in those days and hear the moans and groans of broken hearts in prayer weeping over the lost in their community. The church back in yonder days took prayer seriously and would not move an inch without bringing everything before the Lord in prayer.

When I was a boy, the church had power and influence upon society because the church was still a praying church. Listen friends, the engine of the church is the prayer meeting, but I fear many churches today are out of gas, for when there is a void and a vacuum, it's always filled with something else.

When the Power Is Out, Darkness Spreads

When the light goes out, then darkness will set in, and when the power is out at the church, then darkness settles over community and evil prospers and spreads like the great plague that it is. And that's the title of my message this morning, When the Power is Out.

Samson and the Departed Presence of God

And the sad fact is that most churches are operating without power from on high, and they do not even realize it. They are like Samson, where the text in Judges states, And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson.

And he awoke out of his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. It reminds me of the story about a traveling preacher who was passing through a certain city, and he wanted to go by and visit a historic church that had a long reputation for doing good for the Lord.

But when he got into town, he stopped at a local restaurant to grab some lunch and ask directions to that famous church. The owner of the restaurant was well familiar with that church, and when the traveling preacher went on and on about all the great things that church had done, the owner of the restaurant looked at him strangely and commented, Yes, it used to be that way some time ago.

If you want directions to that church, go up the road a piece and turn right at the next stop sign, then go up a hill, and at the top of the hill there will be a sign telling you the way to that church.

What does the sign say, asked the traveling preacher. The man paused, and with a sad look said, The sign says, Caution, children at play. I'm sorry to say, I've known churches like that, too many that once did great things for God, that God did great things through them, and now there are signs out front that say, Caution, children at play.

The power went out years ago, and they never even knew it, and a new sign sits atop the church building, and it reads, Ichabod, the glory has departed. Well, when are we going to awake from our slumber, friends, and realize we have lost our only source of power, and that is God himself through the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit’s Power and the Need for Consecrated Preachers

There used to be a God consciousness in our sanctuaries, and when you came to church in those days, you felt the awful presence of God. God was at work through his Holy Spirit, through conviction of sin, and regeneration upon the heart.

The Bible is clear when it declares, It is not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, and to have God's power is to have influence upon the society in which we live. Listen, friends, we need God-called men who are anointed by the Spirit of God, and who are willing to preach the full counsel of God.

We need Christ-intoxicated men who don't fear man, but only fear God. We need preachers with eternity stamped on their eyelids, and not the results of the latest ball game. We need preachers who are willing to give up their sports, give up their entertainments, and shut themselves up with the Most High God in seasons of desperation and prayer.

Men who spend their waking hours on their knees and in their Bibles. D .L. Moody never would have had the influence he had in his day had he spent four hours at a football game or on the golf course. Jonathan Edwards would not have startled that congregation at Anfield, Connecticut, with the sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, had he spent his leisure time watching sports.

George Whitfield would never have shaken two continents for God had he not spent his free time on his knees reading his Bible alongside Matthew Henry's commentary. These men had power from on high because they lived in a close, vital walk with the Almighty.

They realized the cost of following a crucified Savior by living crucified lives, and they redeemed their time and third generation for the souls of men. But we preachers today have to have our TV shows, our favorite sports, our precious entertainments.

Why we couldn't get by without our Super Bowls and U .S. Opens and NBA playoffs. Why it just wouldn't be American if we got rid of all that junk in our lives which robs us of our power, weakens our ability to reach this generation of hellbound sinners with the gospel of the Son of God.

Worldliness, Compromise, and the Loss of Influence

Why are some pastors more concerned about lowering their handicaps than reaching the lost in their community? When the church in America made the decision to reach the world by letting the world into the church, it became a worldly church, and she lost her power with God and influence upon society.

When the weekly prayer meeting was terminated for cell groups and Bible study, we lost the powerhouse of the church. When the power is out at the church, darkness settles over a nation. And that's where we are today, friends.

A Compromised Gospel and Judgment on the Church

The church, for the most part, has grieved God away through sin, and we are experiencing the withdrawn presence of God as a judgment against us. We have to be honest and admit we have no power. The church in America sleeps the sleep of death, and she does not even realize it.

When the power is out at the church, the nation sits in darkness, and evil is called good and good evil. Our society sits in darkness and gross immorality. Perversion spills out upon our land like a dirty tsunami, and the church is powerless to do anything about it because she forfeited her right through lack of prayer and compromise in the gospel message.

When we preachers decided to preach a more palatable message to sinful man, and we watered down the gospel and omitted the hard sayings of the gospel of man's need of repentance and the necessity of regeneration.

When we stopped preaching on sin and warning men not to go to a terrible place of misery called hell, when we got out our mop buckets and cleaned up all the blood around Calvary to make it more pleasant to folks, we cheapened the gospel message and brought God's judgment upon us.

Let's face it, let's be honest with ourselves. We have no power. When my teenage daughter texted me that the power was out at the Baptist church, that spoke volumes to me. The power is out at the church, and the teenagers know it.

The Spiritual Crisis Facing the Youth

They know how fake we are. They know we say, do as I say, rather than do as I do. The teenagers stay away from our churches because we made a decision to entertain and occupy them through youth groups rather than keep them in the sanctuary and teach them the great doctrines of the Bible, which are ruin, repentance, redemption, and regeneration.

The teenagers of our churches today are a lost generation who are engrossed in the moral filth of our society and immersed in sexual activity, and we have no message that can reach them because the power is out at the church.

There's no spiritual reality for our teenagers today. Instead of teaching our teenagers how to pray corporately, we feed them pizzas and movie nights. Instead of warning them of their great danger of dying in their sins, we coddle them and spoil them, give them everything they ask for in our churches today.

Our failure to preach on the doctrine of ruin has ruined our youth of America today because they cannot recognize sin for what it is because we are too afraid to preach on sin and offend somebody. So they have their dance parties where they grind on one another like animals and see nothing wrong with it, and the failure of it all lies at the door of our churches today for failing to live like we should, failing to pray as we ought, failing to preach with authority and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Humbling Ourselves for Revival and National Healing

It's high time for the church to shake off the grave clothes of her spiritual stupor and humble herself before God Almighty. We as a nation sit on the brink of complete ruin, and we as a church sit on soft pillows of conformity and compromise.

When, oh when, will we stop playing church and do what's necessary before it's too late? God has brought a great judgment upon this once-great land called America. America has become a laughingstock to the nations.

America has become a filthy cesspool of gross evil that is now infecting other nations and the earth with evil rather than good. Americans drink iniquity like it's water, and with each greedy gulp of sin we grieve the heart of a patient and long-suffering God who sent his dear son to die for sin.

Sin costs Jesus his precious blood, yet we as a nation trample that blood with impunity. And the church lies in indifference and apathy and is content to grow her campus and keep playing church on Sunday morning.

When will the people of God do what is necessary and turn back to the God of the Bible God declares in 2 Chronicles? If I shut up heaven, that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Let me ask you, friends, does our land need healing? Will we admit to ourselves that the power is out at our churches and we need to seek the face of God to get the power back again? We need to fall on our faces before the Almighty and confess our sins and humble our proud necks and seek his face in desperate prayer that he will hear from heaven and come and heal our land, come back to our churches, to this once great land again.

Oh, for the glory of God to be in our sanctuaries once again. If that happened, friends, you couldn't keep the teenagers away from church. They would not want to get out of the presence of God. Let me pray.

A Prayer for Forgiveness, the Youth, and Spiritual Awakening

Lord God, we have sinned against thee by forsaking thee. We have sinned against thee through a compromised gospel. We fear man more than we fear you, great God. Forgive us, I pray. Lord Jesus, we beseech thee to come and visit us with your presence and reestablish your prominence and preeminence in our houses of worship once again.

Forgive us for turning your house of prayer into a house of entertainment. Forgive us for reaching the world with the world and not your gospel in its full council with all its warnings and terrors, wooings and mercy.

Forgive us for taking the blood out of Calvary, the very place where you shed your precious blood for sinful man. And forgive us, Lord Jesus, for trampling your blood through our reckless and presumptuous sins.

Forgive us for sinning against light. Forgive us for our aggravated sins. Forgive us for neglecting to reach the lost in our community with your good news of mercy for sinners. Great God, hear our prayer.

Look down from heaven and see our bent necks as we humble ourselves before thee. Turn your ear to our desperate cries and return again in your Shekinah glory and fill our sanctuaries with your holy presence.

Let there be a God consciousness in our churches once again. And oh, Lord of heaven, in thy great mercy, come and save our teenagers. Come, Holy Spirit, and bring conviction of sin among them. Awaken them to their lost condition, I pray.

Come, grant our teenagers the grace of saving faith and turn them great God to thee. Raise up a strong generation for thee to stand faithfully for thee in the coming days of persecution in the land. Raise up some Joshuas and Josephs in this generation of teenagers.

Raise up a young Esther who will stand for you regardless if she perish for thy great namesake. Look down upon us in that great mercy and send us revival, Lord of heaven. Send a mighty spiritual awakening into the land through your plentiful effusions of grace and in your wrath.

Remember mercy, for shall not the judge of all the earth do right. Have mercy upon us, I pray in the strong name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.