“Driving 35 With A Rocket Inside…”
Ephesians 1:15–23 (ESV) 15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
God’s power is ultimate power, bigger than anything you face inside or outside of you.
1.Paul also wants you to know that God not only gifts you with his power, but he also rules in power on your behalf.
2. It is vital that the power of God in and through you become the way you interpret your world and your identity as his child.
1 Cor. 1:18–25 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
The Bible declares that your hope in life and death is the power of God.
3. We all need to understand the power of God for our everyday living.
2 Tim. 1:7 “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control”
Eph. 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us”.
God’s grace is amazing right-here, right-now grace.
4. We all need to abandon our delusions of self-determination and self-sufficiency.
Gen. 3:4–6 “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Isaiah 40:29 “He gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength”.
5. Our problem is with the limits of our faith, not with God’s power.
6. You and I will not always be happy with the way God exercises his power.
Num. 11:4–9 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium. The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.
7. God’s power is essential to his fathering care for us.
Ps. 103:13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
2 Cor. 12:7–10 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
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