He’s All The Power You Need Series

October 17, 2010

Morning Worship

Text: Colossians 1:11

Subject: What God Wants

Title: He’s All the Power You Need

Today we move on in our series, “What God Wants”. If you have missed out on any of the sermons you can catch up on our website or God to sermoncentral.com and type in my name and then search for the series title “What God Wants” to read all sermons.

This series title asks the question, “What does God want for your life?” You know I spend a lot of time from the pulpit telling you about who you are in Christ, and the authority you have in Him. Maybe I have done so to the point where I have you thinking in a direction we need to correct. You see if you are thinking about who you are and what you can do and what you can receive from God without considering what He wants for your life then we are missing an important point. God wants the best for us but the reason HE wants the best is that HE might be glorified in our lives. My fear is that we get a little off track thinking about MY authority, MY promises, MY healing, MY blessings, MY ministry… when our total focus should be simply on God and nothing else.

Now, having said that, we know that God wants us to have good things. He wants us to have all His promises; all the benefits of a life lived in Him. The reason that HE wants that for us is that it is in our receiving, His character – His power, His mercy, His love, His justice, His eternal nature… - are revealed through us.

Today we want to focus on the third thing that we see that God wants for us according to Colossians 1:11… being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience…

What does God want for you today? He wants you to be strengthened with His power… And He is all the power you need.

Lord, help us to understand Your word today and to see that the things You want for us will bring glory to Your Name. Help us to apply to our lives what we hear today so the whole world will know that there is a great God who cares enough about His people to empower them with His mighty power…

As we begin today I want you to see just exactly what God wants for us here. People might ask, “Why are we focusing so much on this? It was just what Paul wanted for the church and not what God wanted.” This is part of Paul’s prayer for the church that is taken from Colossians 1, but if the Holy Spirit wanted it recorded in the scriptures we can only consider that it is what God wants for us as well.

I want to progress through this a little differently than I normally would on a Sunday Morning. Today I want to be more of a teacher as we would on Wednesday night instead of just preaching at you.

First of all lets look at the verse again. As a matter of fact let’s go back and read from verse 9, 9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience…

I want you to notice three words in verse 11… strengthened, power, and might.

The first two words, strengthened and power come from the same word in the Greek – dunamis – which means, force, miraculous power or the miracle itself… Now, God wants us to have this strength for a reason - so that you may have great endurance and patience…

Look at the last word – might. This is the Greek word kratos and it means vigor (physical power). The translation from the Greek in that first part of verse 11 could easily read, being strengthened with all power according to might (vigor) that is manifested in His glory…

So if we are going to be strengthened where is it going to come from?

with all power according to his glorious might…

I. BEING IN AGREEMENT WITH POWER. Turn over to Luke chapter 4. You all know that when John baptized Jesus the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. Now when that happened did Jesus receive power? Yes He did. It was the same power that Jesus would later tells His disciples about in Acts 1:8, 8But you will receive power (dunamis – miraculous power) when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." It is the same power that is at work within you according to Ephesians 3:20. The same Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus is empowering you. Luke chapter 4, after Jesus had been baptized in power it says in verse 1, 1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. Now if Jesus had been baptized in power then why did the Holy Spirit lead Him out into the desert? I mean, if He had the power why didn’t He just go right into healing and casting out demons and preaching and walking on water and turning water into wine? Why didn’t He just start doing ministry things immediately? Because He knew He needed time to get to a place of intimacy with the Father. That is why He fasted for forty days. Matthew’s account of the desert experience has the devil tempting Jesus at the end of the forty days. Luke makes it sound as though He was tempted the whole forty days. Either way we see that it was this time that Jesus spent getting to know His Father and drawing close to Him that enabled Him to be in touch with the Spirit. That was when He was finally prepared for earthly ministry. As the Son of God He had authority. When the Holy Spirit descended upon Him he had power. But He needed that intimacy with God in order to be sure that He would always do the Father’s will in the Father’s power. It was only when His spirit was in agreement with the Father that He could begin His work. Luke 4:14, 14Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. OK, so if we have the same power in us that Jesus had why can’t we do the works that we are supposed to be doing – the things that Jesus said we would do? Let me ask you three questions. 1) Have you received the Lord Jesus into your heart? I mean really – more than just saying some words but actually letting Him have control of your life? That is when you receive authority. 2) Have you received the baptism in the Holy Spirit? That is the power source that is provided for you. 3) Have you taken time to get intimately acquainted with the Father – to know His will for your life. He wants you to do that for when your will is in agreement with His will you can go into action without fear or doubt. Look at the words that Jesus quoted from Isaiah in Luke 4:18-19, 18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor." You know, when you first get saved all you want to do is to go out and tell people about what Jesus did in your life. We’re just little babies and we are trying to do things that mature Christians struggle with. And yet God honors that. When we get baptized in the Holy Ghost we walk around praying in tongues and praying over people and casting out demons and God honors that. Just like natural babies know when they need nourishment or need to have a diaper changed and they can count on their earthly parent to meet those needs, baby Christians expect their heavenly Father to meet their immediate needs. But as the natural child grows they learn how to feed themselves and take care of themselves, so it is with the spiritual child. You see at the beginning there is that level of spiritual intimacy with God where He will just carry you along. But once you get to a certain spiritual age He expects you to be the one to move toward intimacy with Him, to get to know Him and His will for your life.