s20071209m_God's Gift of Strength For Your Life

God’s Gift of Strength For Your Life

2 BIBLE FACTS: 1st God is Powerful and 2nd Gives Empowering Strength to His People

32Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth, sing praise to the Lord, Selah 33to him who rides the ancient skies above, who thunders with mighty voice. 34Proclaim the power of God, whose majesty is over Israel, whose power is in the skies. 35You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God! Psalm 68:32-35

Why I Desperately Need God’s Empowering Strength:

1.)    Because I Have a Lot of Stress in my Life.

2.)    Because I Get Confused By My Problems.

3.)    Because Some People Really Hurt Me.

4.)    Because I am Hit with Unexpected Disasters.

6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:6-9

Three Steps to Receiving God’s Gift of Empowering Strength

·         [AFFIRM] Faith in God’s Power and Presence in Your Spirit/Heart.

5This is what the Lord says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6… But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:5-8

·         [ADMIT] Your Own Weakness.

9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

·         [ATTACH] Yourself to God’s Will.

4Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:4-8