Many of you are working to restore kitchens and bathrooms in your homes as water pipes have burst in freezing temperatures from several weeks ago here in Texas. I am so grateful for the kindness I hear from so many of you as you respond to church families in need. You opened your homes and helped both physically and financially carry the burdens for those in need. Now before a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t know an organization like ERCOT even existed. Now we all know they exist. ERCOT stands for Electric Reliability Council of Texas. While I don’t aim to point fingers like so many people worked so hard to restore power, many on the board have resigned. More than 4 million Texas were reported to be without power during an unprecedented winter storm. Get the magnitude of this for a moment: ERCOT is responsible for scheduling power on an electric grid that connects more than 46,500 miles of transmission lines.
According to experts, Texas lost nearly half of its generating capacity and was just minutes away from a total meltdown of its energy grid. What makes the glaring weakness in power so frustrating is that Texas is the nation’s largest energy producer.
Carolina Reaper
Talk about your powerful things, what might look like ordinary hot sauce, but the Carolina Reaper was genetically tweaked by Ed Currie, aka Smokin’ Ed. Ed came up with the Carolina Reaper, the hottest thing in Fort Mills, South Carolina. The former banker turned to do some pepper farming and started the PuckerButt Pepper Company. His chili pepper won the award of the Guinness Book of World Records for hottest pepper. One 34-year-old man said he was in the hospital for days after eating one Carolina Reaper pepper.
I bring this recent event up because in Ephesians 1 contains a prayer for power (page 1159 pew Bibles). It’s not electrical power but spiritual, moral, and supernatural power available to those who trust in Christ. Embedded in this magnificent passage is a prayer for to know power. A plea to the Lord above to make His power available to us for the needs in our lives.
There’s a dam in China that is over 1 mile wide and taller than the Washington Monument. It produces enough power each day to run the entire city of Orlando for 2 weeks. From Star Trek’s Captain Kirk’s call, “Scotty, I need more power,” the call is clear: we need more power in life.
Get this: the very energy that powered the first Easter is available to believers every day. The very energy that powered Jesus from the grave is offered to believers every day.
While this message is for those who already believe, so many of you have not yet placed your faith in Jesus. I am glad you are listening. My prayer for you is that you place your trust in Christ so that you will benefit from God working in your life.
Three questions this morning: 1) Just exactly what is being offered to me? 2)How does this benefit me? 3) And lastly, what is good will it do me?
1) What is Being Offered to Me?
God is offering you power and a whole lot of it. The Bible says God makes His power available to you.
1.1 Incredible Power
To describe this incredible power available to you, there’s a pile-up of words: “and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might” (Ephesians 1:19).
Paul is talking about God’s unlimited power and to show us the amount of power God has for us, Paul literally writes: “according to the power of the power of his power.” Paul strings together three words here to describe the surpassing greatness of God’s power. It’s the idea that you are plugged into God to receive His supernatural power for your life. To be crystal clear, it’s a prayer for those who have already experienced some of God’s power in their lives to experience even more.
The word “immeasurable” is the part of the Greek word “huper,” and we get our word super from this word. The word “greatness” is the Greek word “megethos,” and we get our word mega from this. The word “power” is the Greek word dynamis, from which we get our word dynamite. Of course, dynamite wasn’t invented for another 1,000 years after our New Testament. Yet, when they later witnessed the inherent power of dynamite, they chose this very word for “power.” So Paul piles up words for power here in an attempt to communicate the power available to the believer.
1.2 Incredible Power Continued
How much power is available to us? The very power that raised Jesus from the dead: “that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places…” (Ephesians 1:20). The power that got Jesus Christ out of the grave 2,000 years ago is that very same power that can deliver you and I out of our mess today. That’s a lot of power!
Plus, it’s the very same power that made Jesus ascend to the right hand of God, the Father. This power seated Jesus. Why is that important?
A few miles from us is the George W. Bush Presidential Library and inside the exhibit is a mockup of the Oval Office. My youngest son was there with me and plopped himself down behind the desk in the President’s seat. You can take pictures there. If you were to visit the real Oval Office, would you plop yourself down in the President’s chair? Of course, you wouldn’t
Jesus is seated in the chair that runs everything. Heaven runs the universe. Heaven determines what happens on earth. Remember this: the spiritual determines what happens in the physical.
In fact, this power ensured that Jesus had no competitors: “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:21).
The very same power that seated Jesus at the right hand of the Father. This is known as the ascension. After Christ accomplished our salvation through his death and resurrection and was raised from the dead and ascended to the throne… … we’re told God the Father has now put all of life, all the universe, all of history, and everything that happens under His feet and his control, in order to complete the plan of redemption. The Bible is telling you that the power that moved Jesus from the grave to the right hand of God, the Father is available to you.
1.3 Atomic Age
In 1942, there were three physicists: Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, and Eugene Wigner. These physicists were working, actually, in a makeshift laboratory, in a racquetball court at the University of Chicago, and they developed a process to split the atom. They worked in secret on the first, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction that was to provide a powerful weapon again the Nazis. The researchers worked as many as ninety hours a week. They refused to take days off because they were in a race against the evil Nazi empire that sought the same power. They took Einstein’s formula, E=MC2, and they said with that formula we can unleash the power of the atom. After nearly a year of hard work culminated on a cold, snowy Wednesday, when at 3:25 in the afternoon, the scientists finally heard the “clickety-clack of Geiger counters.” This proved to the forty-nine people huddled inside the balcony of the makeshift laboratory that they had sustained and controlled a nuclear chain reaction for the first time in history. Eventually, they found a way to split the atom and multiply the energy in that atom.
Today, forty miles southwest of Fort Worth is the nuclear power plant, Comanche Peak. It routinely generates power for more than 1.15 million households in our area. We have entered into the Atomic Age.
But my prayer is that you will discover a greater force than even this.
1.4 Immeasurable Power
“and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might” (Ephesians 1:19).
God wants you to know He has power in reserve. There are four words in verse 19 to describe the amount of power God has in reserve. The original word “immeasurable” in verse 19 is a word that means “to throw over or beyond the mark.” It’s the idea of having more than what’s needed.
Quarterback Arms
Legendary Cowboys QB, Troy Aikman, recently said that Buffalo Bills standout quarterback, Josh Allen has the strongest arm he’s ever seen. Arm strength is a measurable that many high schools, college, and NFL quarterbacks concern themselves with. There are reports of one QB throwing for eighty yards while on his knees. Brett Favre supposedly throws the ball so hard he broke the fingers of his receivers down through the years. His coach discussed how he even split open the hands of his receivers in practice. Words get bandied about at this point such as “gunslinger” “he has a cannon for an arm.”
The Bible is telling you God has “a cannon for an arm.” God’s power surpasses any mark. His power can throw over anything standing in His way. He has more power available, plenty of power available. God has power in supply for His people. So His power is immeasurable.
1) What is Being Offered to Me?
2) Does this Power Benefit Me?
Who experiences this power?
2.1 Believers Only
“and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might” (Ephesians 1:19).
Note carefully the phrase, “toward those who believe.” God’s power is specially reserved for those who embrace Christ by faith. The Bible wants you to pray to know God more personally. The Bible encourages you to pray to know Christ even more intimately. A little later in Ephesians, Paull will describe God’s available power in a really memorable way: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…” (Ephesians 3:20). His great power is available for believers only.
2.2 Since I Heard
This is confirmed in verse 15:“For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints…” (Ephesians 1:15). This is a prayer for those who know Christ to know the powerful spiritual resources available to them. When you place your faith in Christ, you are now a child of God. This is something to shout about ?. We children of God. We have been adopted into the very family of God. That’s so unbelievable! Not only does the world NOT know it, but we act like we don’t know it either.
To be truthful with you, when some people learn you are one of God’s children, they wonder if God is ‘hard up’ to find people to follow him these days ?. “Really,” they say, “he’s a Christian. I remember when he was kicked out of every school in the city.” “Surely, she can’t be a Christian! I remember what she did with so and so back in the day.”
Do you realize that people take note of your faith? I wonder who is noticing your love for other believers? When you offered your extra bedroom the week the power went out, people noticed. When you offered wood for their fireplace during the widespread power outage, other people noticed. Other people are taking notes of your love for others. Jesus said His people will be distinguished by their love for one another: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
Yet, you will not access all this enormous power automatically. The Bible is calling on you to pray hard and continue to experience this power.
2.3 Reality or Fiction?
Let’s pause for a moment. When you read this prayer, maybe you think as I do, “Really? The power that powered Jesus at the resurrection is available to Christians? This sounds fake to me because I don’t see this in believers.” Maybe you feel like this as well. You read this and think to yourself, “I don’t witness the power of the resurrection in believer’s lives. I see them as normal people struggling like everyone else.” And I would agree with this assessment for most American Christians I see. So why don’t we experience more of the resurrection power in our lives?
2.2.1 Dull Spiritual Eyes
Paul would point you to verse 18: “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…” (Ephesians 1:18).
The most basic reason is that the eyes of our hearts are dull to the spiritual vibrancy offered to us. Yes, you know Christ but your spiritual eyes are dull. The Bible says the reason you aren’t experiencing this supernatural power is that you cannot sense it. The problem isn’t with the generator. The problem is on the receiver’s end. Again, you (and me) are dull and hard of feeling.
2.2.2 Demonic Power
Why don’t we sense more of this great power at work in our lives? Part of the reason we don’t sense God’s power is demonic activity. The Bible says you are engaged in a spiritual battle “for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places…” (Ephesians 6:12).
Satan is studying you carefully. Satan isn’t God – he’s not omni anything! He’s not omnipresent, omnipotent, or omniscience. But he’s an expert on exploiting your personality weaknesses, your traumas, your racial and gender divisions, and you are flesh and its desires. Most of us are aware that athletes and coaches watch game film of an upcoming opponent. A position coach for the Dallas Cowboys recently told the Dallas Morning News that he believes the average film study for someone in his position is around four hours a day. Satan and his team of demons have been watching your own game film on you and me since our conception.
2.2.3 Feeling Healthy
Why don’t we sense more of this great power at work in our lives? Healthy people generally are not thankful for cancer treatments the same way cancer patients are. No, I imagine only those who witness the life-saving treatments to fight deadly diseases know of the great power of modern medicine. So the Bible is calling on us to pray hard to access this power.
1) What is Being Offered to Me?
2) Does this Power Benefit Me?
3) What Good is This Power to Me?
But what good is it to you and me?
3.1 God’s Power is Available to Make You Good
There is sin-killing power. There is sin-stopping power. There is chain-breaking power. There is a power that will corrode your selfish tendencies. God’s power is made available to you to make you good, to make you moral. His power will make you honest, just, and sacrificial.
Return to verse 18 with me to see the logic of the passage:
“…that you may know [1] what is the hope to which he has called you, [2] what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and [3] what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might” (Ephesians 1:18b-19).
He’s not praying that we get the calling, or become heirs, or get the power. He is saying instead: You have the calling; you are heirs; you have the power of God toward you, and you don’t know them as you could and as you should. He wants us to know them: “…that you may know … what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might” (Ephesians 1:18b-19). He is praying that we would be conscious of this.
William Randolph Hearst was a tremendously wealthy man in his day. With his great resources, he loved to collect art. He was looking through a magazine when he saw a portrait he had to have. He told those who worked for him to procure this piece of art no matter what it cost. A several-month search and the man came back to Hearst and said, “Mr. Hearst, we have found the painting. And it’s in your warehouse.”
All of you are familiar with Superman myths. Imagine young Clark Kent bouncing on the knees of his parents and saying, “Dad, Mom, what can I be when I grow up?” He has no idea, right?
Again, the very energy that powered the first Easter is available to believers every day.
Remember God’s goal for every one of His believers: “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).
You have resurrection power available to you to defeat your evil tendencies, your selfish tendencies. You have God’s power coursing through your veins to make you into the moral image of Christ Himself.
3.2 God’s Power Works in Your Crisis
God’s power is available to transform your life. It’s life-changing power.
“The Bible says if you’re a Christian your bad things will turn out for your good, your good things can never be taken away from you, and the best things are yet to come, all by the power of God.” Christ makes His power available to you.
You give me the fingers of Mozart, there is no tune I cannot play. You give me the arms of Mike Trout, there is no home run I cannot hit. You give me the legs of Michael Jordan, there’s no dunk I cannot make. You give me the mind of Einstein, there’s no mathematical formula I cannot unravel. And you give me the life of Jesus Christ, there is no moral and spiritual victory I cannot achieve.
The very energy that powered Jesus from the grave is offered to believers every day. The very energy that powered the first Easter is available to believers every day.
Conclusion
God will adopt you as His child today if you place your faith in Christ.
