Capacity—why Am I Here? Series

INTRODUCTION:

It’s the 1930s and the depression is affecting families across America. A poor man by the name of E.L. Yates was barely making a living on his sheep farm in West Texas around Odessa and Midland. He was constantly worrying about how he could pay his bills and feed his family. Mr. Yates had about given up and was contemplating bankruptcy. He and his family would find some way to make a fresh start once the bank repossessed his farm.

One day a survey crew from an oil company came to him and asked for permission to drill for oil on his property. The contract stated that he was to receive every eighth barrel if any oil was found. At 1,115 feet they hit a gusher. The well produced 80,000 barrels of oil a day! Wells soon followed that could produce twice that capacity. Even thirty years later, government surveys showed wells with a capacity for 125,000 barrels a day. It proved to be one of the richest veins of oil ever found on the North American continent.

Perhaps you are here today living your life like Mr. Yates with untapped resources right beneath your feet. More than just dealing with financial hardship, life has got you down. You go through the motions day by day, but deep within your heart you are ready to quit. You’re weary and tired in need of some rest and a fresh start. Am I the only one who has found the routine of life to be draining? Do you have piles of unfinished projects around your house that you would just like to throw away and start over?

We need strength for daily living! As believers God has given us the unlimited recourses of His power. The Holy Spirit will empower us with greater energy than all the oil Mr. Yates has ever had pumped out of his poor sheep farm.

•Ephesians 3:16-19 (MsgB)

[16] I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— [17] that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, [18] you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! [19] Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

This is a prayer we need answered in our lives today—we need strengthened in our inner being! How many of you think this is a prayer God would want to answer? Absolutely! How will God answer our prayer for inner strength? He will do a work within our hearts.

What are the keys to spiritual renewal? How can we receive strength for daily living?

More than just keys or principles to live by, we have been looking at five one word answers to five basic questions. When answered properly these are five questions will rejuvenate our spirits through the power of God within us.

Like a round of Jeopardy here again are the five answers; IDENTITY, INTEGRITY, CAPACITY, TENACITY and DESTINY.

Identity answers the question “Who am I?” Your identity is not determined by what you do or how other people see you. The answer to the question “who am I?” is found in knowing WHOSE I AM. God establishes your identity! When you remember who you are in Christ, your identity strengthens you in your inner being.

The second way our strength is renewed is through our INTEGRITY. Integrity answers the question “Whose am I?” or another way to put it “Who controls how I live my life?” Your God given identity as a child of God establishes your integrity—whose are you? I am God’s, therefore the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and I will live my life to please God and not myself. You cannot live a holy life—a life of integrity—apart from your relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Integrity is not worked into us by what we do—integrity comes from within us because of who we are.

Today we come to the third way God will strengthen us in our inner being—CAPACITY. Capacity answers the question, “Why am I here?”

You and I are human beings—I’m glad by the way we are not “human doings.” Our identity is not established by what we do—we have an identity based in who we are. We are made in the image of God, body, mind and spirit.

Too often those in the world try to achieve an identity and in turn their integrity through what they do. However, as believers our identity, integrity and capacity is not found in what we do, but from who we are. It’s not from the outside, but form the inside.