How to Experience God's Power

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How to Experience God’s Power

Introduction

 

<Ephesians 3:14-21 New Living Translation>

 

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,  the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

 

A.      Everyone is looking for power…hemi commercial.

 

<Dodge hemi pic>

<Weight lifter pic>

<Stephen Harper pic>

 

B.       Nothing’s changed! Power was a major theme for the church at Ephesus too. At least judging Paul’s earlier comments in chapter one. Paul prays:

·      (v 17) that we will know who Christ is

·      (v 18) that we will know who we are in Christ

·      (v 19) and that we will experience God’s power. He refers to God’s…

<…incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength… (v. 19) (NLT)>

C.     Paul uses four different words for power in just this one verse. His point is simple: God’s power is absolute, and it is available to you!

Some might say, “My life is one flop after another, one lapse after another, one failure after another. If God’s power is out there, available for all of us, where is it? How can I get it?

   D.   Our text zero’s in on that one question: How do you experience God’s power? We will find the answer to experiencing God’s power by looking more intentionally at God’s love…

 

I.   <God’s greatest resource is love.>  

 

<I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you a mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. (v. 16) (NLT)>

 

A.      God wants to give you the very best.

 

1.      “Glorious, unlimited resource”

2.      God has it all, He owns it all.

< “All the world is mine and everything in it.” (Psalm 50:12 NLT)>

3.      He can give you anything he wants – money, possessions, prestige, success – and Paul makes it clear He wants to give you the very best.

B.      If God wants to give us the best, what does God choose to give you?

<And may you have power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. (v. 18) (NLT)>

1.      What God wants to give you most of all is the ability to know his love.

2.      His love is beyond comprehension, and we will never fully understand it, but we can at least begin to understand it.

<May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. (v. 19) (NLT)>

August Hare once said (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Love flows downward. The love of parents for their children has always been far more powerful than that of children for their parents. In the same way, no man has ever loved God with more than 1/1000th of the love that God has given us."

Think of your children. Think of how totally dependent they are (or, at one time, were) on you—how vulnerable, how helpless, how fragile, and how you wanted to be everything in the world to them. There were times when you had to say no and they didn't understand. There were times when you had to correct them, and they didn't want to be corrected. And there were times, if you're like me, when you thought, "If you just understood how much I love you, you wouldn't question why I think it's so important that you take the garbage out."

God loves you far more than any parent could love a child. As Augustine said, "God loves each of us as if there were only one of us."

C.      We need to grasp God’s limitless love.

II.   <God’s love is your life.>   

A.     Love is what makes Christianity unique.

 

(read story)

<I pray that your love each other will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in your knowledge and understanding. (Philippians 1:9) (NLT)>

   B.   The Christian life is a life of love.

<…may your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love (v. 19) (NLT)>

< May you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. (v. 18) (NLT)>

 

<May you experience the love of Christ… (v. 19) (NLT)>

    

         1.   Rooted in love.

         2.   Understanding His love.

         3.   Experiencing His love.

  C.   The goal of the Christian life is to be immersed in God’s love.

 

 

III.   <Living in God’s love is the key to power.>  

A.      To the extent that we understand God’s love, we experience His power in our lives.

<May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (v. 19) (NLT)>

B.       What kind of power are we talking about here? The most important kind: the power over sin.

1.      Over weakness…fear…shame…despair…rage …  lust…greed…pride…doubt…guilt.

   C.   There are things that beat us down. There are things that make our lives miserable. We don’t have to live under their tyranny any longer. God promises His power.

 

  1. This tyranny is avoidable to you. It’s avoidable to you.

  1. To receive His power, you only have to yield to His love.

 

     

Conclusion

Spurgeon said, "He is truly great in power who has power over himself."

   A.   If you want to experience power over yourself, your

          emotions, your circumstances, there are two ways you can

          go about it.

1.   You can try the boot camp approach: discipline,

      discipline, discipline.

2.   Or you can try the biblical approach: love, love, love.

         Guess which one works.

 

<Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. (v. 20) (NLT)>

   B.   Do you want to experience the power of God? Then get

          immersed in the love of God. …pray about it…meditate

          on it…contemplate it…believe it…receive it.

C.      When you know his love, you will experience his power and

his power at work within you will revolutionize your life.

 

<May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. (v. 20) (NLT)>

 

Amen.

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