How do You Respond to God's Power
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Intro
Intro
Paul was in Ephesus and Paul’s main goal in Ephesus was just like anywhere else: Be a witness and share the Gospel
Tonight we will see that in order to achieve that goal Paul had to be dedicated and God had to show his power
Paul’s Dedication
Paul’s Dedication
Paul starts preaching and interacting with people in the synagogue like normal. He shares the Gospel, interacts, discusses with people there for 3 months before they have had enough and kick Paul out.
But that’s not going to stop Paul. He goes and rents out basically a classroom where he can continue preaching and sharing the Gospel.
In Ephesus they kept a different schedule than us today. Paul would have made tents from 7 in the morning to 11 in the morning. Then at 11 people took a break until 4 in the afternoon and took naps or did whatever. So Paul would preach from 11 to 4 then go back to making tents from 4 to about 9:30 at night. He did this for two years!
Why? So that everyone! Everyone! In the region heard the word of God.
That’s dedication! Paul made his own money and preached and shared the Gospel for 5 hours a day 6 days a week. That is 3,120 hours of preaching and sharing the Gospel in two years. That is 130 days of non stop teaching and sharing. Paul was dedicated to sharing the Gospel!
How dedicated are you? Great athletes know what dedication is.
Michael Jordan flu game
Are you willing to be dedicated to God even when it is hard or you don’t feel like being a Christian?
God’s Power Revealed
God’s Power Revealed
What was the result of Paul’s dedication? God used him to show God’s power over everything in the world.
Verse 11 is key that God was doing the miracles, not Paul. God was doing these miracles through Paul and even through Paul’s clothes. Why? Why was God doing these miracles?
He was showing that he is powerful above all and so that people would believe and trust in Jesus rather than their magic spells and potions.
So we have God doing miracles through Paul and so naturally Satan has to have a counter attack to try and lead people away from God.
This is where we have 7 men who were the sons of a self proclaimed Jewish High Priest meaning he wasn’t a priest at all.
They are going to attempt to cast out demons in a possessed man with their own formula they came up with. Remember this isn’t from God but a tactic by Satan to lead people away from God and keep them practicing and trusting in their magic and spells and potions. So were they successful? No! Because only God has the power to do these things. These men weren’t believers. They were tools of Satan who were trying to get glory for themselves by says look what I can do. But God defeated them and defeated Satan.
A Proper Response to God’s Power
A Proper Response to God’s Power
Once this became known a healthy fear of God came upon the people. What do I mean by healthy fear? An aw and fear of God that leads to us trusting in Jesus and nothing else.
So what did they do? They started making a clean break and riding their life of sin.
Some were believers who were still holding on to their magic and spells and potions but once they saw that those things are not effective and God convicted them of trusting in other things rather than him alone they came and confessed their sin and got rid of that sin their life.
This wasn’t just a few people but many people came. So many that the value of the things they got rid of were equal to the yearly salary of 150 men. See they could have sold their stuff to someone that way it was out of their life and they still made money but they saw their sin as disgraceful and offensive to God so they destroyed that sin. They burned it up!
They had the proper response to God’s power.
So the question tonight is how do you respond to God’s power?
How do you respond when God convicts you? Do you ignore it and go on because you like your sins? Or do you submit yourself to God and confess your sins and destroy all things related to your sins? That should be our response.
Small Group Questions
Small Group Questions
How long did Paul preach in the synagogue?
Where did Paul preach when he got kicked out of the synagogue?
How do we know that Paul was dedicated to God?
How can we be dedicated to God?
Why ddid God use miracles in Ephesus?
What were the 7 men attempting to do? Where they successful? Why not?
Verse 17 says “fear fell upon them all.” What does it mean to fear God?
How did the people respond when they had conviction and fear of God?
How should we respond to God’s convictions in our life? Are there any convictions you want to share or that we can pray for?