The Awesome Power of God
By Pastor Matt Black
10
June 2007
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 3:20
Introduction: Open your Bibles to the book of Ephesians 3. The title of this morning’s message is “The Awesome Power of God”. Once you’ve found Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, won’t you stand with me this morning?
Outline: This morning we are looking at God’s Awesome Power being worked out in your life. We’ll be following three easy points:
Let’s read verses 19-20, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Illustration: If you needed to get from here in Chicago to across the ocean, say the coast of Scotland or something, you could choose one of many modes of transportation.
All of these modes might be fine until you reach the ocean. Actually if you Google a map from here to London, it will take you step by step from hear to the New York Harbor. Step 30 is “Turn left on the long wharf” in New York Harbor. Step 31 is “swim across the Atlantic Ocean”.
This kind of trip might be possible on Google, but in real life it’s neither possible nor advisable! What you need is a ship, or better yet a plane!
Back two hundred years ago (1799), no one could ever have dreamed of flying a plane anywhere because there was no such thing as an airplane. The best they could do then (beginning in 1783) was the hot air balloon. No one living back then could even come close to imagining a 747 which can carry 500 people up to 8000 miles in one trip, all in less than a 24 hour period! No one could have imagined that kind of power! And friends, we have not begun to imagine the potential of what God can do in your life. Living your life without the power and presence of God is like trying to swim across the Atlantic Ocean. To try to be what God wants you to be without His power and presence is neither possible nor advisable.
When compared to a horse and buggy, the power and potential of a 747 is beyond comprehension. How much greater is God’s awesome power?!
And as we come to verse 20, I want you to see the awesome potential of God’s power. His power is limitless! We can’t even imagine the things that God can do.
I. The Potential of God’s Power. Verse 20, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”. What is the potential of God’s power? I’ll tell you how great it is: the God who formed the worlds is the same God who formed you.
v The God who raised Jesus from the dead is the same God that raise you from spiritual death.
v The God who can make blind men see and a dead man live is the true and living God that can make a fornicator as pure as heaven.
v Can anyone here testify that God can take a liar into a truth teller?
v Can God turn the worst of marriages into heaven on earth?
v Can God take a dead end job and turn it into a mission field?
v Can he save the littlest of children from hell? Can God save you if you are 95 or 105?
Our God is Jehovah-Jireh: The Lord Our Provider! He is able! He “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”. Is there anything God can’t do?
In the first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul prays for some things that seemed pretty impossible to ordinary people like those in Ephesus and like you and me. Look at all the amazing things Paul mentions? These things seem impossible!
v In Chapter 1, we see unlovable, hostile people being loved and “choosing us in Christ” to be saved “before the foundation of the world” (verse 4). You have God taking darkened minds—totally focused on self and sin, and God opening the eyes of spiritually blind people with “the eyes of their understanding being enlightened” (verse 18).
v In Chapter 2 you have dead people being spiritually raised from the dead and given life!
v In Chapter 3, you see people filled with the glory of God, the love of God, and the fullness of God.
1. He prays that they might be “strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man” (verse 17), Totally aware of His great power…
2. “That Christ may dwell in [their] hearts by faith” (verse 18), United with Christ…
3. That they would all “know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” (verse 19), totally aware of His love…
4. And finally an amazing request that they all “might be filled with all the fulness of God” (verse 19). Totally aware of His presence…
Paul says all of this is possible! He is able to do all of this and more! He “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”.(verse 21).
Application: Maybe you’re here today, and you believe the Gospel. You are living by faith. You are a Christian. But you see Paul talking about knowing the love of Christ and being filled with all the fullness of God, and it seems way too far away. It’s like you’re wearing tennis shoes trying to cross the Atlantic Ocean. At times we do feel that that kind of living isn’t for ordinary Christians—it must be for exceptional Christians. Well I want you to know that all of this is possible, and more! He “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”.
Illustration: To illustrate this, let me take you on a journey back in time to an elderly couple. An old grandfatherly man of the ripe old age of 100 named Abraham is standing in his den playing shuffleboard with his wife Sara. They’ve always wanted to have children together, but Sara deep down believed she would die childless. Then one day an angel arrives and says Abraham, you’d better put your painting clothes on because the nursery needs to be blue! We read Abraham’s response in Romans 4:20, “And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: 20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;”
Abraham says, “I’ve had this paint can for quite a while—but I never threw it away, because I know God always keep His promises”.
Listen, the Bible says God can take a childless couple and father a nation! Abraham is said to be “the father of us all” (Romans 4:16).
God “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”. Don’t stagger in unbelief. God has put you in your hard circumstances precisely so that you will grow and change and be conformed to the image of Christ. He’s sends you heartbreaks to test your faith. He sends difficult and confusing situations so that you will call on Him who “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think”. Before we go to our next point, let’s break that statement down.
A. He is able. God can do anything. God is the source of all power. He is the only one that is truly able. We all have power, we breathe, we think, we live. But it is “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). Our power is totally dependent on God. But with God there is a different kind of power. Every other kind of power has a beginning, but God's power is eternally from Himself. He never began to be powerful; He didn't get his power from anyone else; He doesn't depend on a source outside himself for its sustenance. His power is also different in its sheer magnitude from any created powers. Out of nothing He created the entire universe - think of it! God has made this vast and complex world, and all the billions of galaxies and universes out there. He did it instantaneously. He spoke, and it was done! He was able to design and then create the galaxy, the atom, the brain, the eye, the human hand, and by His will He upholds it all moment by moment.
Application: Let me apply that fact in this way: You can observe God’s power any time you want. Get your nose out of the computer and out of video games, away from images on a flickering screen. Get on your bike, or go for a walk. Spend time in God's creation. Feel the power of the wind. Look at the mountains. Survey the heavens. Listen to creation's testimony. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1).
Look at the heavens and look how small you are and how big God is. Job said it this way: Job 7:17, “What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?”
Sometimes you might feel like a caged bird, trapped in your circumstances and think God’s hands are tied. Listen, we talked about this Wednesday night. “Is there anything too hard for the Lord?” (Jeremiah 32:27).
B. God is not only able, but He is “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (verse 20).
II. The Practice of God’s Power. Now Paul moves ahead. He says that God “that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us” (verse 20). You cannot live above life’s circumstances without the power of the Spirit of God working in you on a daily basis. You need His face to shine upon you. You need His fire to well up in the center of your soul. Let me illustrate it for you.
Glow Show. Last night I took Jill and the kids to the “Glow Show” in Elgin. Basically there are all these larger than life hot air balloons. When I looked at those massive balloons it reminded me of this verse.
In order to fly in the balloon, you have to get into the basket. In the center of the basket above your head is a massive flame that creates the hot air that makes the balloon rise. Now there is no way you and I can fly on our own. I think we established that already! But with the fire of the hot air balloon you can rise above the clouds. But you have to get into the basket, take off the weights, and turn on the fire.
That’s how the Christian life is.
A. Get in the basket. There has to be a line of demarcation in your life. You have to decide that Jesus Christ is going to be your Lord and King.
B. Put off the weights. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith”. That is every day we need to deal with the sin in our lives and the hardness of our hearts. If you don’t deal with sin every day, you will be weighed down in the circumstances of your life.
C. Light the fire! This is my favorite part. The fire is the fuel for the Christian life. Prayer and the precious Word of God are the fuel for Spirit filled living. Jeremiah says, “his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones” (Jeremiah 20:9). I think of Solomon opening the Temple in Israel. The Temple was representative of God’s presence in their lives. King Solomon offered a burnt offering, and he got down on his knees before the people and prayed. We read in 2 Chronicles 7:1, “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house.” Prayer calls down God’s fire, His presence from Heaven to fill us as the Temple of God on earth.
Yet this morning I want to draw attention this morning to something that is very uncomfortable and difficult to deal with. It is the fact that the vast majority of people do not pray as God has intended. Do you remember what your Christian life was like in the first three or four weeks and how you prayed? God says to all of us, “Return to your first love”. You’ve left your first love. Go back to the time when praying was as easy as talking.
Yet there comes a bottoming out for many of God’s people. We begin to settle for prayerless living because of the cares of this life. The vast majority of the professing church does not have a consistent prayer life. Why?
I will tell you why. Because we are at the root selfishness in us. I am not talking about something insidious, but something instead that is subtle.
It is true that without real thinking upon the Person of God and Who He is, we would rather
v We would rather be amused and entertained than pray.
v We would rather have a good meal than pray
v We would rather get another item on our agenda accomplished than pray.
v We are a driven society. We are driven to get the job done; driven to keep the home in order; driven to answer our email; driven to just get through the day and get home to our family. But who is driven to pray? Who cares for the God who has given us life?
Let’s light the fire of prayer in our lives! Let’s let the word of God be a fire in our bones!
Before we move on to our next point, let me get to my favorite part of the hot air balloons. The most beautiful thing about them is when they fly at night.
As the darkness falls, you can see the fire burn brighter and brighter. It becomes more beautiful as it lights up the night sky. Now remember, the people inside can’t see anything around them except the fire and their compass. How about you? In the circumstances in life when they are dark, can you still look at your compass (the Word of God) and be filled with the Spirit of God in prayer? If so, you will light up the night sky of this world!!
Conclusion: Look around here today. Who has done this? Who has saved you from sin? Who is making you holy? Who is working out His will in your lives? God! Christ Jesus died to reconcile you! He rose to raise you from the dead! “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (verse 21). It is the awesome power of God’s grace that has done all of this! To Him be the glory forever and ever! Amen!!
Closing Hymn: 44 To God Be the Glory