WHAT A MIGHTY GOD WE SERVE

Ephesians 3:20

Opening Illustration: A little boy came home from Sunday School and his mother asked him what he had learned. He answered, "We learned that Moses went behind enemy lines and freed the Israelites. Then he took army engineers and built a pontoon bridge across the Red Sea. Then when the Egyptian tank division started across the bridge he called in dive bombers and blew them to bits." His mother looked at him and said, "IS THAT WHAT YOUR SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER IS TEACHING YOU?" The little boy answered, "Well, no mom, but if I told you what she taught us there's no way you would believe it!"

Illustration: One survey found that 95% of Americans believe in God or a universal force. But it also found that only 67% define God as "the all-powerful, all knowing Creator of the universe Who rules the world today."

I want to report to you that I am in that 67%! I believe and I know that God is an all-powerful God. In the words of our text, and I like the way he states it. Eph. 3 : Vs 20 "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."

Our messages for the day are focusing on the power and ability of God and how that enables victorious believers, strong winning saints.

This morning the Believer is victorious as he bows his knee.

Tonight the Believer is victorious because of God’s power and ability.

I. The Sufficiency of God’s power… Vs 20 Now unto him that is able…

A. God is able to solve every problem that is created by obedience to Him.

I know there are those who believe that if you love and serve God you will not have problems … that is simply not true. There are those who have problems resulting from not living for the Lord but living for the Lord creates problems also.

Consider Abraham ……God had promised him a son, and then miraculously provided him this special son …then asked Abraham to sacrifice his son on the altar. What was taking place was, Abraham was asked to believe God was sufficient to solve the problem that obedience was going to create.

That is where we are often …

God is clear on what He asked of us:

undivided loyalty to Him

seeking Him first

giving Him the first fruits of all He prospers us with

In all thy ways acknowledge Him,

Train up a child in the way he should go....

But we stand and become hesitant when we see all the potential problems obeying Him will create.

The question is, do we believe He is sufficient to solve every problem that obeying Him creates?

Heb. 11: 19Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead;

God proved to Abraham and it is recorded for us that God is sufficient to solve every problem that is created from obedience.

B. God is able to fulfill every promise He has ever made.

Consider Moses being sent by God to Pharaoh to insist on liberty for the Nation of Israel, and think, what are the chances that would happen? not likely ... not very good odds … unless you have been assured of their freedom by the ever sufficient God.

Looking back on the recorded history of that event, King Solomon said in I Kings 8:56, "Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant."

Illustration: Adoniram Judson, who we might consider a Moses in our historical line, served as a missionary in Burma for six years without a convert. He witnessed, preached, prayed, fasted, but there was not one single convert. Someone asked him, "Why do you keep preaching? Why do you keep witnessing? What hope do you have you are going to have any success?" Judson replied, "Because God keeps His promises and He said, 'My Word will not return void." Before his death Judson saw thousands of converts and hundreds of churches started.

C. God is able to comfort every pain His child might experience.

Hebrews 2: 18For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted

The word succour means “aid, relief, help”

2 Cor. 9:8 "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you;”

God is able to succour you, lift your pain or give you grace to bear your pain.

D. God is able to save every sinner that will respond in faith to His Holy Spirit’s drawing.

Hebrews 7:25 "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God

by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them."

There is no one too hard, too far gone, too mean, too wicked for God to save if they will respond in faith to His drawing.

Illustration: George Whitefield, while preaching in his Tabernacle in London, cried out, "The Lord Jesus will save the Devil's castaways!" At the time there were two abandoned and wicked woman walking down the street that heard his words. They looked at each other and said, "That must mean us." There and then they were saved. One of them wrote a note and gave it to Whitefield.

"Mr. Whitefield. Two poor lost women stood outside your Tabernacle today and heard you say that the Lord would save the Devil's castaways. We seized upon that as our last hope, and we write you to tell you that we rejoice now believing in Him and from this good hour we shall endeavor to serve Him Who has done so much for us."

E. God is able to keep every one of His own eternally secure.

Jude 1: 24Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,

I Peter 1: 3-5 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Illustration: He has stated that God is undeniably able. He is declaring that without question God is sufficient. Now think this through … that is a slight compliment. That is not the greatest compliment that can be paid. One of the guys around here kind of freely and half jokingly announces that his wife says he is “… better than nothing….” I know he is joking, as they have been together for over 50 years, but to say one is “better than nothing” is just a notch lower than “sufficient.”

Reason this out …if the best thing that could be said of you was that you were sufficient, you would do!!!! ... that is not enough to describe the God of Glory is it ????? No, He is more than sufficient!!!

THE SUFFICIENCY OF GOD’S POWER

II. The Superiority of God’s Power

Now comes the compliment…as he is describing that God is more than sufficient ….he operates out of a power that is “exceeding abundantly.“ He is of a power and operates out of a power that exceeds abundance … goes far beyond more than enough….

A. His ability is superior in that it is beyond all our requests Vs 20 “above all that we ask ”

You can't ask too much or seek too much.

You will never stagger Him with your request or shake Him with your desires.

B. His ability is superior in that it is beyond all our reasoning. Vs 20 “above all that we ask or think”

The truth is, we don't have the ability to think of something big enough to ask God for… that would even come near to testing a fraction of His ability.

We can't even begin to imagine the scope and size of His ability.

We do not have the capacity to reason or contemplate the fullness of the power of God.

That is why it is so foolish for man to question the miracles of the Bible. We measure things by human potential and that is all we have, the capacity to reason, but God operates in a realm that is beyond our comprehension.

Illustration: On August 6, 1945 the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The bomb was nicknamed "Little Boy." After being released, it took about a minute for Little Boy to reach the point of explosion. At approximately 8:15 a.m. when Little Boy reached an altitude of 2000 feet it exploded.

Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets, the Pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the bomb, said, "A bright light filled the plane. We turned back to look at Hiroshima. The city was hidden by that awful cloud...boiling up, mushrooming." He turned away and wrote in his journal, "My God, what have we done?"

Others that saw Little Boy said, "We saw another sun in the sky when it exploded. Little boy was so powerful that when the heat wave hit ground level it burnt everything up in its path. The strong wind generated by the bomb destroyed most of the houses and buildings within a 1.5 miles radius.

Think of what "Little Boy" did. Yet the energy, power, and force of Little Boy is nothing compared to the energy, power, and force of our "Big God." His power goes well beyond that and then some more on top of that!

THE EFFICIENCY OF GOD’S POWER

THE EXCEEDING EFFICIENCY OF GOD’S POWER

III. The experiencing of God’s power. Vs 20 “…according to the power that worketh in us..”

Here is the exciting and thrilling thing about God's power, it is a power that “…worketh in us…”

It is available to be experienced in all our lives, in our difficulty, in our daily lives, in our arena and little corner of this world.

A. According to the power that already indwells you, that you have already experienced Vs 20 according to the power that worketh in us

All of God’s energy and power that can be experienced by man is available to man through Christ and is accomplished by His Holy Spirit.

We do not need to seek a new experience, we need only to yield to the one who indwells us.

I Cor. 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

B. According to your yieldedness to the power that already indwells you. Vs 20

The Holy Spirit is powerful but His liberty, to some degree, is in our hand…quenched, grieved, resisted.

The power of God efficiency, exceeding, is experienced according to our yieldedness and desire and motive.

His desire to fully work in us is according to our desire for Him to work in us.

God’s power is able if we are available.

Conclusion: Illustration: Queen Victoria once asked William Booth, "General Booth, what is the secret of your ministry? How is it that others are so pale, so pallid, so powerless, so weak, and you are so mighty?" He looked at his Queen and said, "Your Majesty. I guess the reason is because God has all there is of me."

When self is abandoned and ignored and the Holy Spirit, submitted to the power of Christ, is experienced.

Question: "DO YOU NEED GOD AT WORK IN YOUR LIFE?" Is there:

·· Some problem that you are facing?

·· Some promise you are claiming?

·· Some pain you are encountering?

·· Some path in which you are struggling?

·· Is there a need to see God's power and ability in your life?