Subject: “Allowing God's Power to Work In Us”
Text: Ephesians 3:14-21
“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.” NLT
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 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, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” KJV
Introduction: Paul’s first visit to Ephesus lasted about three months. Paul successfully plants the church at Ephesus, It is recorded in Ac 18:19-21. The work he began on this occasion was carried forward by Apollos (Ac 18:24-26) and Aquila and Priscilla. On his second visit, early in the following year, he remained at Ephesus for "three years," for he found it was the key to the western provinces of Asia Minor. Paul called it, "a great door and effectual" was opened to him (1Co 16:9), and the church was established and strengthened by his diligent labors there (Ac 20:20,31). From Ephesus as a center the gospel spread abroad "almost throughout all Asia" (Ac 19:26). The word "mightily grew and prevailed" despite all the opposition and persecution he encountered. The text has been called “Paul’s prayer for spiritual growth.” The text speaks to the issue of allowing God’s Power to freely work in us to make us what we ought to be.
On his last journey to Jerusalem Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, then transported and imprisoned at Caesarea (Acts 21:17-26:32) The trial at Caesarea set Paul on a journey to Rome. Paul remained Caesarea as a prisoner for 2 years. His trip to Rome was an adventure filled with trouble, trials, and finally a shipwreck. Paul left from Caesarea and sailed to Sidon, Myra, and Fair Havens on Crete, where the ship underwent extensive repairs. he stayed until after the Day of Atonement. Sailing west until he was shipwrecked on the Island of Malta, where he stayed 3 months. When Spring came, he sailed to Syracuse, Rhegium, and Puteoli, finally arriving in Rome, where he was imprisoned for 2 more years. Now as a prisoner in Rome, Paul writes to Ephesians from the calm season of his imprisonment, far from the noise and turbulence, the conflict and strife that marked his earlier ministry. Paul looks out on the church, seeing it as powerful, but divided. He understands the function Jewish believers, to whom the gospel was first revealed and the function of the Gentile believers in God's plan for the restoration of all humanity. Paul knew that God loves the whole world and has positioned this body of new believers, both Jews and Gentiles to impact the world. In the epistle, Paul desires these new believers to understand their new identity in Christ, he writes the book of Ephesians.
So, in Chapter 1, Paul describes the Father God love for His creation, his children and his relationship to His Son, Jesus Christ. Then he moves to describe the Son’s love and commitment to the Church. After clearly establishing our connection with God as His children, the relationship between God and the Son, Jesus Christ, Paul set out to describe the Church’s new position in Christ. The apostle prays the church would discover and experience all the revelation and spiritual enlightenment God can give.
The apostle Paul prays for their spiritual understanding. Really, every time we pray, we should seek for ourselves and others this same kind of spiritual understanding. The only way believers can be successful in their assignment is that God would open their understanding to the ample supply of spiritual strength already provided for the work and accomplishment of their assignment.
Even though believers have been called to a “worthy calling,” at times ministry can be difficult as best and frustrating at worst. There are several things that contribute to frustration in ministry. We all know life itself has its challenges and when you add sickness, economic challenges and various kinds of pandemics, life and ministry becomes almost unbearable. Yet, life does not stop so we can take a break. Neither does our ministry assignment of the Church has not changed to lighten the load. Paul wants to clear establish the fact God has provided all that believers need to live a victorious life and to fulfil the mission of Christ followers. Believers have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and the Promises of God, This is all believers need to do God’s work.
One of the main sources of frustration in ministry comes when believers fail to realize they have what we need. Another source of frustration is hypocrisy; the disparity between what the church ought to be and how the church really is. That disparity can be seen in leadership and followship. There is a gap between what we ought to be and how we really are. The pandemic has only added to the dysfunction. The frustration has caused some preachers to leave the ministry and others have left the church completely. Hypocrisy has discouraged new people from coming into the church; at other times, it has driven some people away from the church. The good news is there is a bridge between what the church is and what the church ought to be. How can we become what we ought to be amid a pandemic; dealing with hypocritical people; dealing with changing culture? The secret is to know that the Holy Spirit is living and working in each of us. Apostle Paul dealt with a pandemic of physical attacks, raging storms and all kind of violence, yet the Word of God prospered and his ministry expanded. Hear the key verse from the KJV:
Eph 3:20 “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,”
Eph 3:20 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. NLT
The good news in the text is, “There is no limit to what God can do in us and through us if we allow His Spirit to freely work in us.” God can make us what we ought to be if we allow his power work in us. Four things in the text: God can make us what we ought to be if we let Him Strengthen us with His Might in the inner man. How do we allow God to make us what we ought to be? At least four ways are mentioned, first…
1. Allow Him Strengthen us with His Might in the inner man. That Eph 3:16 “he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;”
There are three things that make believers destructive: Mental Intimidation, Inner Wounds, and Inner Weakness. Believers allow Satan to convince us that we don’t have what it takes. The fact that we are saved is an indication that we have the right stuff: the anointing, the talent, and every gift we need for success. After we get pass mental intimidation, we must deal with our inside issues. There is a tendency to hide our wounds but hiding them is not an option. Our deepest wounds are inflicted by people we love and trust, our family, friends, co-workers and even church members. Hurt people tend to hurt others. If we do not allow God to heal our wounds, we become like the people who hurt us. People that are mean are people who use to be nice but got hurt and never got healed. Many of our weaknesses flow out of our pain. His spirit must be allowed to strengthen us with His might in the inner man. God can make us what we ought to be if we let Him strengthen us with His Might. God can make our healed weakness a source to strength to help others if we allow Him to.
2. Allow Him to indwell us with His presence. Eph 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; God can make us what we ought to be if we let Him indwell us with His presence. We must allow Jesus to live in our hearts by faith. Paul was praying that the Church would practice the presence of God. That is to live each day abiding in the presence of God. Many Christians experience that on Sundays and Wednesday nights, while in the church with the saints. Then they live the rest of week under the influence of the world. The abiding presence of God makes all the difference. It calms our fears and steady our nerves. Just knowing that God was with him allow Jacob to continue his journey alone. After stealing his brother’s birthright and fleeing to safety, he finds God in the middle of nowhere and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not! In 2000, I purchased a Cadillac Escalade with the on-star system on board. Today, we have GPS. Back then On-Star would ride with us and talk to us. If we got lost it would show us the way; If we got hungry, it would tell us where the nearest restaurant was; If we got into an accident, It would send an emergency vehicle and so on! Paul desires the church to live with abiding presence of God. God presence changes everything. It calms our fear and quiets the murmurs of our heart. His presence silences the voice of the enemy.
3. Allow God to Perfect us in His love.
Eph 3:17b -19….being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Every believer has God’s love shed abroad in their hearts. To have God’s love perfected in us means that we are mature enough to live out the love we have in our hearts. We must allow the Spirit of God to perfect His love in us. Since God is love, God’s love must become soil which our souls are nurtured; God’s love must be the foundation on which we build our lives; and God’s love must be the motivation for every action. His love passes knowledge. We will do more out of love than we will out of fear. If you love me, keep my commandments. The power of God within us is activated by our faith in God’s word and his anointing. Faith worketh by love. All things a possible if we can believe.
4. Allow God to Fill us with His fullness. V. 19...that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
There is a desire in every human heart for a place of significance. All of us want to make a difference in this world. The things that cause a person to make a difference is what he or she is full of. What they are full of may be good or bad, positive or negative, right or wrong, but they are always the ones who make a difference. Like a person filled with alcohol, they are under the influence. That influence causes them to make a difference.
Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
One of things God desires is that we not just have the Holy Spirit, but that we would be filled with His Spirit and operate under His influence. We must allow God filled us with his fullness. When we allow God to fill us, He moves us from worldliness to Holiness; He moves us from darkness to light. God is Light! His light moves us to walk in the light. He transforms us from selfishness to service. God is love. His love transforms us into loving servants. We love others the way He loves us. He transforms us from timid faith to bold witness. His spirit empowers us to be bold witnesses in the world.
St. Augustine said, “There is a God shaped Vacuum in the human heart that can only be satisfied with the fullness of God.” Many of us struggle with trying to fill the void in our lives in our own strength. Some people try to fill the void with bad things…Others try to fill the void with good things. King Solomon wrote a book about it called Ecclesiastes which could have been called Can I save you some time? Drugs, sex, and money won’t fill it. Bad things lead to bondage; good things lead to burdens and frustrations. After experiences every pleasure, 700 wives and 300 hundred concubines, he concluded vanity of vanities, all is vanity under the sun. It’s like chasing the wind! God alone can satisfy the longings of our heart. “Can’t nobody do me like Jesus!”
Dare to allow God to make us what we ought to be! There is a caution in allowing God to strengthen us with might in the inner man; allowing God to indwell us with His spirit, allowing God to fill us with presence and perfect his love in us. The caution is the glory issue. There is a possibility that we might try to take His glory for ourselves. There is a possibility that others might try to give us His glory. In 2Co 3:5, Paul says, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Unto Him be the Glory! We have no power in ourselves; we do not take credit ourselves; we have no power to enlighten the mind or change the heart, we are only instruments in the hand of God. Whatever we do, whatever we have and whatever we become…To Him be the glory! Eph 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
The text says, unto Him be glory, not unto us. Remember during the story of the Exodus, Moses was not allowed to go into the promise land. Why? Numbers 20 gives us the details. In a nutshell, the children of Israel were murmuring again. They were thirsty again and God told Moses to speak to the rock. Moses in his anger, smote the rock twice and water came out. Listen to these words;
Nu 20:10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? 11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
Though Moses was used by God for many years, God does excuse Moses’ attitude towards his people, nor would God share His glory with Moses. God said, “Ye believed me not to sanctify me in the eyes of Israel. In other words, you did not give me the glory of my power in doing this miracle, and punctually fulfilling my promises, nor did you display my goodness in doing it notwithstanding the people’s perverseness.
This was a moment in which God’s glory, guidance and goodwill should have been magnified in spite of the people’s murmuring. When God blesses us to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, unto Him belongs the glory and honor!
We must allow God to close the gap between what we are and what we ought to be. For some that means salvation; for some it means repentance and renewal; For some it means coming be heal of inner wounds and weaknesses; others may come saying Lord, perfect your love in me and finally, others may come saying, Lord, fill me with your fulness, do it again! Fill me again!
