Full Throttle Part 3 - Living And Walking in the Power of God

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We're shifting into Second Gear—and this is where things get turbo charged. We're talking about living and walking in the power of the Most High God.

Too many Christians shine like a 20-watt refrigerator bulb when God wants us to be a 10,000-watt explosion. Too many of us are driving around like a Pinto when God wants us to move like a Ferrari. It's time to turn up the gears and let the power of God loose in your life.

Here's the good news: God's power is for ordinary people to experience daily. Not just for big TV preachers or pastors. For you. For me. Look at Peter—the guy who rebuked Jesus, sank while walking on water, denied Christ three times, and sliced off a servant's ear. Mr. Fumble. But after Pentecost, filled with the Holy Spirit, that same Peter preached one sermon and 3,000 people got saved. His shadow healed the sick. He raised Tabitha from the dead. An angel broke him out of prison.

Normal Joes and Janes doing spectacular things.

The early church believed that the power of God abided in them and flowed through them. Philip saw crowds healed and delivered. Paul and Barnabas performed signs and wonders. Even after being stoned and left for dead, Paul got up and went back into the city. Handkerchiefs from his body healed the sick. Why? Because they took Jesus at His word: "Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and even greater things" (John 14:12).

Jesus didn't send you out in a coasting cart with no engine. He said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you" (Acts 1:8). That power is for you—today—to be His witness, to pray for the sick, to share your faith, to live dangerously for the Kingdom.

So why don't we see more of it? Because we don't expect it. We don't anticipate it. We don't believe the Spirit of God lives inside us and wants to flow through us.

Look at the person next to you and say: "You are a minister. A minister of reconciliation, of peace, of God's power."

Everyday ministry by everyday believers. That's the turbo charged life. Let's live it.

Key Scriptures: Acts 1:8; Acts 2; Acts 5:12-16; Acts 8:5-7; Acts 9:33-35, 36-41; Acts 14:3, 8-10, 19-20; Acts 19:11-12; John 14:12-14

Transcript

0:08

Hi everyone, I'll Don Smith here. Welcome to the Talk About It Podcast, where we take relevant topics with a biblical point of view and we talk about it. You know you want to, and so do I. Let's talk about it. Welcome back, everyone, to the Talk About It Podcast. I am Don Smith, your host for the next 30 minutes or so. I'm so glad that you have tuned in today. Thank you so much for all your faithful support, your comments, your love, your encouragement. Wow, you guys are amazing. I'm just so blown away by the enthusiasm behind uh the podcast and all the info that I get back from you guys. Thank you so much. If you're a first-time listener, where you been? We, I'm telling you, we've been waiting for you. You didn't even know it. Well, we are waiting for you, and we're so glad that you're here, but we need you to do us a favor. Just push pause right now. Go back to the beginning of season 10, episode one, and uh just start right there. Push play. We'll be here waiting for you when you get to this spot. I promise you, we ain't going nowhere because we got some amazing things to talk about here on the Talk About It podcast. We're taking a relevant topic with a biblical perspective, and we are just talking about it. Season 10. We've been talking about what it means to live wide open for Jesus. What it means to live out loud for Jesus. I'm talking like, what does it mean to live full throttle, pedal to the metal, wide open for the Lord Jesus Christ? And I think it's been a great uh conversation, a great topic. Someone said, Hey, Pastor Don, can you just talk for a little bit about what it means to live out loud for Jesus? What it means to live, you know, wide open for Jesus. And I was like, I can do that. And so that's what season 10 is all about. I have no idea how many episodes we're gonna have, but it's been fun so far in the first two episodes. Here we are, episode number three in season 10. We're calling this full throttle, wide open for Jesus. I am so glad. Now, if you have listened so far this season, if you've listened for the other nine seasons, you know how we roll here. We just need you to put a like, a share, a subscribe uh out there on your social media, which gets the news out about our podcast. We're just uh a little bitty podcast, we're not famous names, we don't have a lot of resources. We just do what we do because we love the Lord Jesus. Hey, I like to say it this way: we just riding with Jesus. Get in. And so uh, you know, let's open the door for others to get in. And the way you can do that is by uh sharing the podcast on your social media. That's the biggest thing you can do for sure. Uh, to make everybody aware that this is an incredible uh 30 minutes of your life uh once a week, and it can really inspire and encourage you. Uh, that's really good. If you can support the show, that'd be great. Uh, right there in all your show notes, there's a lot of ways to do that. You can support the show uh by with a one-time gift. Buy me a sweet tea and a little Debbie snack cake. You can do that, uh, or you can do it uh monthly. It doesn't matter. I appreciate it. We use all that money to get to Africa to train pastors, which I hope to be back at the end of 2026 in uh in Nairobi. There might be some other places we can get to as well. Uh, but it all depends on what the Lord wants to do and how uh we can get there. So you're helping in every way, and I appreciate you guys doing that. Now, today, everybody say today. Here we go. Here we go. The first two episodes of Full Throttle here in season 10. We've been talking about what it means, right, to just like live for the Lord. Like, and I'm comparing this to like, you know, we're in a car and we're ready to go and we want to we want to put the pedal to the metal and we get, you know, what I grew up, I first learned how to drive a standard transmission car. Now, I don't think many people know how to drive a standard. There's some of y'all out there that probably do. But uh, you know, if you could drive a standard, you could drive an automatic. And so I remember, of course, I grew up on a farm, so we had a lot of farm equipment. You need to learn how to shift gears and things like that. So here's what we're gonna do today. Like the first two episodes, I feel like we've been in first gear. Now, this sec, this third episode today, I want to move it up a notch. I want to get into second gear. And I want to talk about what it means to like feel the effects of a turbocharged engine, okay? Living and walking in the power of the Most High God. Is that all right if we we do that today? Because I just feel like here we go in episode three. We're just in second gear. And uh, you know, that turbo empowered life. I don't know if you understand much about engines, but if you put a turbo on top of an engine, that means that it gets to bring in more oxygen into the engine. It brings in more air. Therefore, the explosive power of the engine is more, okay? And so I want to talk about that turbo-empowered life today, all right? It's the key, I believe, uh to us fulfilling the vision that God has given us as believers that follow Jesus Christ, as as a church that we worship at and we feel a part of, our family of faith. I believe that that's the it's the key, right? This empowered living. And and we've got to we we have to live and walk in this life and the power and the presence of God. Somebody say amen. But what does it mean, Pastor Don? What does it mean, PD? Living and walking in the power of the Most High God. Now, I want to clarify this today because I like to get out of the isms, all right? I I know there's a lot of denominational ideologies behind how you worship and how you live for Jesus and those types of things. You know, the the Lutheran have their way, the Presbyterian have their way, the Mennonites have their way, the Baptists have their way, the Pentecostals have their way. I mean, it's just kind of the isms. I want to get out of that today. Instead, I want to talk about what it really means, okay, to just live and walk in the power of the Most High God. Like that's what we're going to be driving in today. We're going to hit second gear because too many times, I listen, I know too many Christians that are about as bright as a 20-watt refrigerator light bulb. Hello, somebody. Listen, here in the United States, I don't know where you're listening. I know that we've got like 68 country different nations and countries or whatever that listen to the podcast. But here in the United States, right, the government several years ago got involved in the light bulb situation. I have no idea, uh, but it I just despise it. I despise it. Like you get these new light bulbs and you walk into a room, you flip, flip on the switch, and you're like squinting your eyes because you can't see, because it's just dull, it's dim. And you're like, is anybody in there? And everybody's like, oh, well, just wait 15 minutes, you know, and they'll brighten up, they'll do this kind of thing. No. See, I'm the type of guy, I like power. I like it like when I turn on a light switch, I like it boom, okay? I like these lights that when you hit the switch, they are on. There's power. And that's the way I believe the spirit of God wants to flow in our life. I know, I don't believe the spirit of God wants to turn on and then warm up for 15 minutes, okay? And then all of a sudden we're shouting for Jesus. And it's the same way with a car, right? Like we're riding in a car, we're talking about full throttle, right? See, what happens with a turbo, a turbocharged engine, it takes a normal engine and it gives it a boost of power and compression. And too many times, as a believer, we're driving around like a Ford Pinto, okay? And God wants us, I believe, to live in this life, to flow in this life as born-again believers, like a Ferrari, all right? Like, like we're ready to go. God wants you to turn up the gears, and that's what we're gonna look at today. We want to give it, listen, we're gonna give you, I'm gonna give you some ideas on how to turn the power of God loose in your life today. Okay, so today's episode, episode three and episode four. All right. I feel like it's gonna kind of be a two-part episode because I got a lot I want to share. But let me just start off with this. Are you ready? I don't know where you're at. You're you're in a car, you're on the treadmill. Listen, if you're on a treadmill, you might want to bump the speed up a little bit because we here we go. If you're in a car, you're you better mind the speed limit. Here we go, right? Watch this. God's power is for ordinary people to experience daily. I said it. I said it out loud even, because I believe it. You see, God's power is for ordinary people like you and me, talk about it. And one of the things that I love about the word of God, okay, there's a lot of things I love about the word of God. And you should read this book sometime. Hello, somebody. Here we go, talk about it. But one of the things that I love about the word of God is that it demonstrates from the first page to the last page of this incredible book that God uses normal, everyday people. I love that God doesn't hide the mistakes and the humanity of biblical heroes in order to convince us that we we gotta be some kind of super Christian in order to walk with him. But what it does demonstrate to us is what it looks like to live out loud, wide open for Jesus. See, the disciples, I mean a good percentage of them, they're just fishermen. They're just common folk, everyday individual. Peter, Peter, let me let me talk about Peter for just a minute, okay? And you just kind of bear with me, right? He's always the kind of guy that's got his foot in his mouth and he he did the wrong thing and said the wrong thing, right? He's the kind of guy that when you know Jesus was talking about, hey guys, I need to explain this to you. I'm gonna die, I'm gonna go away. And then Peter like pulls up beside Jesus and says, uh, you know what, Jesus, um I'm I need to rebuke you for just a minute. That can't happen. I mean, that's just come on, Jesus. That's just dumb. You can't go away. You can't die. And Jesus says, come, come here, come here, let me straighten you out. And and you know what I'm saying, like Peter's like, hey, listen, I understand. Maybe that maybe Father God isn't communicating with you very well, Jesus. I need to straighten you out, okay? And and then and Jesus is like, hey, come here, let me let's have a talk for a moment. And he looks at Peter and he just says, Get behind me, Satan. Like he calls him the devil. Peter, Peter's the guy that walked on water. He's the guy that sank. He's he's like going down into water, and Jesus is like, come up here. Let's, you know what I'm saying? And he's pulling him out, and he says, like, look, Peter, this, this was gonna happen. Peter says, Lord, I'm gonna die for you one time. And G, and I'll defend you. And Jesus is like, hey, bud, I love you. And you know what? I I appreciate it, but you need to really understand you're gonna deny me three times. And Peter's like, no, I'm I'm never gonna do that. I'm never going to do that. Then they're like in the garden, and Judas comes up and and they're gonna take Jesus away, and here's good old Pete, okay? And and he's like, he's like swinging a sword, okay. This guy, Malchus, is there, and and he like, you know, cuts his ear off, um, it probably aiming for his head and missed and got his ear, and Jesus is like Peter. So he goes over and picks up the ear and boom, like puts it back on Malchus's head. And and and I mean, here Peter is fumbling, just fumbling all the time. Now, if the way I explained that scenario kind of uh, I don't know, jazzes you up or mess. Maybe you don't read your Bible like I do, but this is this is the scenes, this is the way I see things kind of play out when I read the scripture. And you know what? If you just talk about it, if you just do a study of the book of Acts, you know what it is? Let me let Pastor Don help you out, okay? Um I used to say I want to save you four years of Bible college. Then I started a Bible college and I'd like you to be a part of it. Hello, somebody. So, but in this, I want to show you something, okay? The book of Acts. It's a recording of normal, everyday Joes and Janes, like you and I doing spectacular things. One of the key players in the book of Acts is who? Good old Pete, Peter, on the day of Pentecost. Let me read it to you. Acts chapter 1, verse 8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria until the ends of the earth. And so Jesus says, Hey, all right, God's power is for you. See, first of all, the reason that I read this scripture in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, to you as I get ready to plow into this really good, to like put the pedal to the metal here, okay? Is I want you to hear this. It's your Bible. I don't have a trick Bible, okay? Read it out of your own Bible. In Acts chapter 1, verse 8, Jesus is literally saying, God's power is for you. Come on, talk about it. Say it with me. It's for me. Say it. It's for me. Too many people think God's power is for that person or that person or some other person, or God's power is for that TV Christian personality, or God's power for the pastor on Sunday mornings, or for the worship team, or for that person who seems to have a super spiritual gift. No. God's power is for sons and daughters. How many of you talk about it? How many of you right now are sons and daughters of the most high God? And let me tell you something. If you raised your hand, if you said, Yes, I am, well, let me just inform you. Let me encourage you. Maybe no one's ever told you before, but P. D. Pastor Don, right here on the Talk About It podcast, is going to tell you today that if you are a son and a daughter of the Most High God, he did not send you without power. He didn't send you out like some kind of coasting cart with no engine in it. You know, those little Boy Scout carts that they build every year and they race them, they got no engine in them, and you know, that kind of no, that's not what God sent us. He sent us out empowered, and that's where he wants us to live, walk, and breathe. And Acts chapter one, he said that you'd be endued with power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And Acts chapter two, the Bible shows us they were all filled with the Spirit, and they began to speak with tongues as the Holy Spirit moved through them. Now everyone is hearing them speaking and praising God in their own language, in their own dialect. And I believe, if I remember correctly, uh most scholars believe that there could have been at least, at least 18 different languages that day. And they all go like they're drunk with wine. Peter, Mr. Fumble, he stands up full of the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, full throttle for Jesus, out loud and wide open, and begins to preach. Read it for yourself. He he preaches a message that said by the Spirit of God that they're cut to the heart and he went in in dissection and said to them all, basically, you all need Jesus. And 3,000 people raised their hands that day and say, Yep, I need Jesus. Now, if 3,000 got saved, I'm guessing there had to be over 10,000 people there, if 18 different languages are spoken. And it's Peter's first sermon. Now, I've been preaching for 30 years. Give me a break. His first sermon and 3,000 people get saved? If Peter, an ordinary guy who fumbles every opportunity he gets, can preach and 3,000 people get saved, why can't we preach the good news and believe that God can touch people? Why can't we share our faith as born-again believers and believe that God can touch people through that? Why do we have to live in the shadows and act like we don't love Jesus or we don't go to church or we're or we're really not Christian? See, I I love it. And and the book of Acts continues on. I got so many stories. Peter goes into the temple to pray with John one day, and this guy is sitting out in front of the temple. You remember that story? And he says to them, Silver and gold have I none. This crippled guy from birth, he's like 40 years old or something. And Peter says, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give unto thee. Rise and walk, and the man is healed. And then, and then, if I say and then, and then I don't know if you read this book, you really should read this book sometime. Then Peter's thrown into prison, and an angel comes in the middle of the night, opens the door, and lets him out. Oh my goodness. I I don't know. Have you ever read the book of Acts? Because it's wide open, it's full throttle, pedaled to the metal for Jesus. Like in the book of Acts, let me give you a couple of highlights. Can I do it right here? Talk about it. Acts chapter 5, verse 12. The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. Acts chapter 5, 15 through 16, as a result, the people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented with impure spirits, and all, everybody say all, and all of them were healed. Normal people. The power of God was so real, so full throttle, so pedaled to the metal, so turbocharged, that when Peter walked by, if his shadow touched people, they were healed. And you say, Well, okay, Pastor Don, that's great. I've read those stories. That's pretty cool. I was in Sunday school as a kid, and I've heard all the sermons. Why why don't we see that today, Pastor Don? Okay, that's legit. I'm gonna give you that. But I also want you to receive my answer. Okay? If you got a legit question, I want you, and I'll receive it. I want you to receive my legit answer. Let me tell you why I think we don't see it today. Because we don't expect it. I don't think we anticipate it. Let me ask you this born-again Christian that goes to church every Sunday. When you go to church on a Sunday morning, do you expect that someone in that service or services will get saved? How many times do you wake up on a Sunday morning thinking, I'm going to church today? Somebody's going to get saved. How many times do you think somebody's going to get healed? Somebody's going to get delivered. See, I don't think that people believe that the Spirit of God lives and abides inside of them personally, much less in our corporate gatherings. And that is what we want to fix. Because it's just not true. God does live inside of us. What is true is he does live in us and he does want to walk through us. He wants to flow and minister through you, talk about it. Not just through your pastor, not through your preacher, not through those personalities or those people who have a lot of charisma. That person beside you, that that person, you know, every day that you see and flow. Let me tell you something. Talk about it. Here's what I fully believe. You're a minister. You're a minister of reconciliation. You're a minister of peace. You're a minister of God's power. How do I know that? Acts chapter 8. Remember Philip? I think it's verse 5. If he goes down to the city in Samaria and he's proclaiming uh Jesus there. And the crowd heard Philip and they saw these signs and wonders that Philip was performing, and they paid close attention, I believe, is what the Bible says to what he was saying, because of the miraculous flow, the full throttle power pedal to the metal of God flowing. And I think the Bible says that with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many. And many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. I I think that's Acts chapter 5 or chapter 8 verses 5 through like 10 or something there. Literally, your Bible says that with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many. Hello, somebody. In Acts chapter 9. Do you ever read that chapter? Oh my goodness. They found a man named Aeneas, okay? He's paralyzed and he's been bedridden for like, I don't know, eight years or something. And uh Peter says to him, you know, Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat. And the Bible says immediately Aeneas got up. And all those who lived in Lydia and Sharon saw him and they turned to the Lord. The Bible says that because they saw the miracle-working power of God, that they turned, the people turned to the Lord. In Joppa, uh, an interesting city there in Acts chapter 9, uh, there's a disciple named Tabitha. I think in in uh your Bible might put in parentheses there, like um in Greek, her name would be Dorcas, so you might have heard that name. And uh Peter sends everybody out of the room and he gets down on his knees and he begins to pray, and he turns to the dead woman and he says, Uh, Tabitha, okay, in Greek Dorca, get up. And the Bible says that she opens her eyes and seeing Peter, she sits up, and he takes her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Unbelievable. Or is it unbelievable? It's in the Bible. I think we should probably believe it. Acts chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas. Uh they're they're spending some considerable time speaking and boldly proclaiming the Lord uh they and who and the Bible says that he confirmed their message by his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders. I think that's It's uh around verse thir three. Acts chapter 14, verse three. And in that same chapter, I believe, Acts chapter 14 is uh uh uh in in list Listeria. List I it's I can't pronounce the word. Lystra, maybe. Uh there was a man who was lame, and he he had been that way from birth, and he had never walked into the words. And he's listening to Paul, he's speaking, and Paul then begins to look directly at him, and and and he saw that this man had faith to be healed. That's what Paul, that's what the Bible says. When Paul saw this man, Paul saw that he had faith to be healed. This man who had never walked his whole life. When Paul's eyes met him, the Bible says that he had faith to be healed. And he called out, stand up to your feet. And the Bible says, and that man jumped up and began to walk. You should really read this book sometime. Acts chapter 14, Paul stoned, the people rebelled. We don't want you. They drag him out of the city, right? Leave him for dead, kick him to the curb, and the disciples gather around him. And it says he got up and went back into the city. Let me tell you something, talk about it. That's the power of God. You might hit me, I might be knocked down, but I'm not knocked out. And that's that's a message for some of y'all today. Walking and flowing in the power of God. I I think it's Acts chapter 19. They they took handkerchiefs from Paul that he wore in his body while he was working in the sweat, and they would take it and put it on a sick person, and they'd be healed, whole, made well. What were they seeing? Talk about it. See, the early disciples believed that the power of God abided on the inside of them and flowed through them, and they believed what Jesus said. Talk about it, talk about it. Okay, if Acts is too much for you, if it's too wide open, if it's too full throttle, if there's too much power and you're moving too fast, let me back up for a minute as we get ready to close. John chapter 14. I think it's verse 12. Jesus said, Truly, I tell you. Whoever believes in me will do the works that I've been doing. What? And then he says, and they'll do even greater than these. Because I'm going to the Father. Oh boy. Okay, so maybe we didn't slow down. Maybe we're gonna go faster. Come on, talk about it. You know you want to. And and I and he says, and I will do whatever you ask in my name. So that the Father may be glorified in the Son, you may ask me for anything in my name, and I'll do it. Talk about it. Talk about it. I mean, we're we're we're in second gear now. Y'all better hold on because we got a few more gears yet in this season. If you think we're going fast right now, hello, somebody, you better put on your seatbelt. That's what I'm talking about. Living for Jesus, wide open, full throttle, pedal to the metal. You better put that seatbelt on. Because here's what we believe. Talk about it. Everyday ministry by everyday believers. Oh, let's don't complicate it. Let's just own it. Come on, we're just riding with Jesus. Get in. You are filled and flowing in the power of God. Somebody say amen. You are filled and flowing in the power of God. You just gotta walk in it. You just gotta walk in it. Oh my goodness, talk about it. Talk about it. What an episode this one is. Oh my goodness. Hey, we're just in second gear, okay? We are just in second gear, but we are picking up some speed. I want you to understand. Next week we're gonna talk about how God's power is released from within us, okay? And I think we're, you know, we're gonna keep gaining some speed. You know how it is in a standard transmission, right? You gotta gain some speed until it's time to change gears again. All right, we're gonna we're gonna keep moving here in second gear. It's going to be great. You're not gonna wanna miss it. Okay, I thank you so much for being here today. Wow. Maybe you just want to put this on repeat again. And you know what? If you feel like, if you feel like, man, you've stepped into a new gear, I'm I'm so happy for you because, man, it's time to live out loud. Come on, church. Come on, talk about it. Come on, born-again Christian. It's time. It's time for us to live full throttle, wide open for Jesus. It can't just be the paid ministry's job to live out loud for Jesus. Okay? That's you and me. That's why we're doing this podcast. That's why we're doing this season. Okay, and it is so good. I'm so thankful for all of you guys. You you inspire me, encourage me, you make me want to come back each and every week. And I'm so glad. I hope I do that for you as well. If I do, will you do me a favor, like, share, subscribe, do all the things, maybe pray about being a supporter. I promise you, God is going to do some great things. There's some people who need to hear this message for sure. Won't you send it to them? I dare you. I dare ya. Here's your first challenge. You want to live out loud for Jesus? Copy and paste the link wherever you listen to this episode out and send it to somebody and tell them buckle your seatbelt. You're not ready for this. Oh, it'd be great. Hey, listen, guys, I love you. I'm so glad to be with you, but as much as I love you, Jesus loves you more. I'll see you next week.