"It is God who will do the work"

Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV

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, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

I want to read it in a different translation…

Ephesians 3:20–21 NIV

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Paul

Paul in this passage is speaking to the ephesians

and these two little nuggets of scripture are acutually the ending of his prayer for spiritual strength to them as they endure the coming journy of growing the church.

And in these two verses paul gives us a beautiful picture of the work of god in our lives..

the desire of god for our lives..

these are words that should encourage our hearts..

stretch our faith..

and bring peace to our soul..

And I want to use this passage of scripture as a theme verse for this weekend in our time together.

Last year

a few months ago, alex called me and said, “hey when you come in october pastor wants you to speak at the leadership conference.”

And I remember the day and the conversation.

It was a drizelly day..

I was driving to my in laws house which it about 3 hours away..

and as soon as I got off the phone with him the lord gave me this passage of scripture..

and said this is for verbo de dios..

This is what I want you to tell them.

That I, am the god that desires to do imeassurably more than all they can ask of think.

THAT IT IS I WHO WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN AND BRING IT FORTH..

THROUGH MY POWER AND MY STRENGTH AND MIGHT placed within them..

Tell them they are entering an imeassurably more season where what has already been accomplished will look small in comparison to what I am about to do.

Shift

If you will allow me to be a little prophetic.

I believe that you as a church and organization, all of the churches together

have entered into a shift in seasons..

and you are entering a season of fruitfulness like you have never seen before.

But as you enter that season there are a couple of this that I believe we need to understand about this season..

This weekend

So i want us to look this verse in three pieces..

Starting today and ending sunday actually..

1. IT IS GOD, NOT US, who brings the promise and work to pass in our lives..

when God gives a promise, our job is not to try to figuire out how that promise will come to pass

our job is to trust the promise maker to be the promise keeper

2. God wants to do imeassurably more than we can ask of even dream...

god is not simply looking to do what has been done all over again..

hes not looking to do a little thing…

but he want to do dream defying things..

things we cant eve comprehend..

3. God will bring it forth according to HIS POWER at work WITHIN US..

First

as we dig into the first statement..

were going to go to 2 samuel 7

where God spoke something simalar to David during his reign as king.

read it tonight

and the passage is long

so were not going to read through the entire thing tonight.

But I want to encourage you tonight when we are through to go back and before you go to bed to read this short chapter..

and meditate on it

Its certainly been a chapter that has blessed my life.

David Decides to built God a house

Davids has already accomplished much

When we come into 2 samuel chapter 7..

We find an accomplished and comfortable david..

This part of davids story is after much of the difficult journy of his life.

we are past the promise and annointing of samuel that david will be king..

beyond the shepherds feilds..

and the slaying of goliath

we have passed the torment and chasing of saul..

journeyed beyond the story where saul and jonathan have died and david has been finally made king..

The chapter opens and tells us that:

2 Samuel 7:1 ESV

Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies,

Davids house has been established..

and his enemy had been dealt with..

He was finally past much of the chaos..

and he had seen much come to pass in his life

Realization

and in this place of comfort

and maybe even out of grattitude..

david decides..

i want to be clear DAVID.. Decides..

He wants to build a house for god..

after all he has a home

he has been established..

god has cared for him..

so he wants to built a house for god..

prophet

and so daivd goes to the prophet..

the one who spoke for god in this day..

and tells him what he wants to do..

and without even consulting god..

the prophet responds and says..

yea go and do it..

a good thing?

after all this is a good thing right?

It has good motives

It has good intentions..

Its to bring glory to god..

david wants to do a good thing..

And he feels he can accomplish it..

But there was a problem..

It wasnt what God wanted to do..

Gods response to David

Nathan

You see nathan the prophet goes home..

and during the night the lord speaks to him..

and tells him..

Listen you need to go tell david something..

Hes not going to build my house..

in fact I havnt asked for anyone to build me a house.

in all the years i have been the god of isreal.

in all their jounreys..

I didnt ask anyone to do this..

Whos will is it?

We have to be careful..

and as we talk about the amazing things god wants to do.

I want to caution us..

that We have to be careful to make sure the things we are hooping for and pushing for are gods will and not our own.

Ministry

You see sometimes in ministry..

I think we do things that we know we can do..

That we are comfortable doing and believe we can accomplish..

or things we just simply want to do..

and we justify them because they seem noble..

and they seem godly..

They seem honorable..

but...

they are not Gods will for us..

And we have to make sure before anything that what we do is gods will.

no one saught god..

you see niether david nor nathan saught god before deciding to build god a house..

they just said..

its seems like a good idea..

and heres the issue with that..

if its not gods will..

its not god would will accomplish it..

and the danger is god will not be in it..

and so it wont have the halmarks or finger prints of god in it..

it wont bear the fruit or the harvest we need from it..

it wont bear the annointing and blessing of god

thats why the bible will tell us that we have not because we ask not, and when we ask we ask amis..

what does it mean to ask amis?

It means we start asking go to do things that are not in the will of god for our lives..

so they dont come to pass..

We just end up expending energy and getting frustrated that things didnt go the way we wanted..

WHEN WHAT WE SHOULD DO FIRST..

IS SEEK THE WILL OF GOD FOR FOR DIRECTION AND THEN FOLLOW HIM..

God, what do you want to do..

What is your will?

God tells nathan..

So god tells nathan

this isnt going to happen..

and later in 1 chronicals

we find out that god would not allow david to do this because he had shed to much blood and was a a man of war..

so god had a reason..

Perspective

But god does not completely chastize david..

Redirects

I believe because god saw the heart of what david wanted to do

and instead honored his heart and intentions..

1 sam 13:14 after all tells us david was a man after gods own heart..

Davids intentions were not selfish..

they just were not the will of god..

SO GOd REDIRECTs THE CONVERSATION.. AND THE DIRECTION.. AND REMINDS DAVID THE REALITY OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP..

god gives david some prospective..

I am the one who brought you this far

2 Samuel 7:8–9 ESV

Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.

god says listen..

you have this great Idea on what YOU are going to do..

but remember

its ME who has been doing all the doing all your life..

I have brought you this far..

I brought you out of the feilds when you were a nobody..

AND MADE YOU A KING..

I have cut off your enemies..

AND ITS I WILL BE THE ONE TO CONTINUE TO DO THE WORK IN YOUR LIFE..

Cocky

I think in every ministers life..

there comes a point where we get a little comfortable..

we look back on whats been accomplished..

and we begin to think..

man look what ive done..

look what has been done through me..

and we may even begin to think, I KNOW WHAT GOD WANTS, without even asking god what he wants..

IT WAS GOD

BUT i want to remind you tonght it was never you and i..

It was the lord..

It was by his spirit..

not our might or power.

IT was him who saved us..

him who called us..

him who has used us..

him who has accomplished everything

IT WAS NEVER US..

WE WERE SIMPLY THE VESSELS..

The mouth piece

or the conduit if you will..

IT WAS HIM!!!

God

God tells david..

I am the one who has brought you this far…

and not only am I the one who has brought you this far..

but I am the one who will finsh this thing out!

IT WAS GOD IN THE BEGINING..

GOD IN THE MIDDLE

AND GOD IN THE END..

I will be the one who brings forth more than you can ask for or imagine

Look at verse 11..

God SAYS INSTEAD OF YOU BUILDING ME A HOUSE, I GOING TO GIVE YOU A PROMISE..

he says ..

my plan is not for you to build me a house..

but I will build you a house..

2 Samuel 7:11–12 (ESV)

And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

2 Samuel 7:16 ESV

And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

God says listen..

What has happened to this point..

was me..

But you aint seen nothing yet..

I AM GOING TO DO SOMETHING YOU CANT EVEN IMAGINE..

I WILL ESTABLISH A NEVER ENDING HOUSE FOR YOU..

Bigger Perspective

you see david wanted to build god a house for the present..

He wanted to establish and earthly throne..

and that would come eventually through solomon..

But god wanted to do something far bigger..

He wanted to establish an eternal work through david..

and eternal throne..

something david could not even fatham..

he couldnt ask, or dream, for what god wanted to do and would do..

House

You see the house god is speaking of is not the hosue of cedar that david was thinking off…

God tells david..

when your far gone and dead..

I will establish your son..

and he will build me a house..

BUT WHEN HE IS GONE..

ANOTHER WILL COME AND I WILL ESTABLISH IT FOR ETERNITY..

Who is god speaking of?

He is speaking of Jesus

the liniage of david..

the one who will rule on the throne forever..

Luke 1:32–33 ESV

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

You see god tells david..

You had a plan..

but it wasnt my plan..

your plan was temporal..

mine was eternal..

your plan was too small..

I want to do something bigger

AND I WILL BE THE ONE WHO BRINGS THIS PLAN FORTH..

I WILL DELIVER THE PROMISE..

I WILL ACCOMPLISH THE WORK..

AND I WILL BRING IT THROUGH YOU..

I WILL DO THE WORK AND BRING FORTH THE IMEASSURABLE..

I will ...

Davids (Our) Response to God

as you can imagine..

david is floored by gods repsonse..

and he gives a model for us in how i think we should respond before god today..

and each day to be honest...

in response to the fact that we get to do this work for him… and he chooses to use us..

look at the first words of his reponse..

I want to read them too you..

Humility

2 Samuel 7:18 (ESV)

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?

Davids first words to god..

are words of humility..

and admission of insignifigance compared to god..

Humility

you see if we are going to do this work..

if we are going to minister for god..

If God is going to do the work through us..

we cant be prideful or arrogant..

we must be humble..

Isaiah 66:2 ESV

All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.

that word contrite means broken..

1 Peter 5:5 ESV

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

James 4:6 ESV

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

You see god is looking for humble people..

poeple who are willing to admit they are not the power at work.

but they are only the vessle..

why?

Because its the vehicle of humility that moves us out of the way so god can work and have HIS way..

until we are willing to humble ourselves before god and allow god to be the one in control.. God cannot truely use us for his purpose..

HE CANNOT DO THE IMMEASURABLE..

We are limited

if its always our way..

then it will never be bigger than us..

because we are limited and incapible compared to god..

Jesus

Even christ had to humble himself..

Philippians 2:8 ESV

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

what is Humility

What is humility?

its thinking less of myself..

and humility before god is thinking more of god, his will, and his ability and pupose than ourselves..

Jesus Prayer

This is why Jesus taught us to pray..

Your kingdom come.. your will be done..

It was a prayer of humilty..

and David humbles himself before god..

something david did often mind you..

and then look what he does..

Submits to god plan..

David begins to submit in faith to gods plan over his own.. ..

He chooses to let god have his way instead of david insisting on his own way..

2 Samuel 7:25 ESV

And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken.

David says..

I hear you lord..

and I know that you are bigger than me..

you are more powerful than me..

and your plans for me are good plans..

plans to give me hope and a furture..

so do what you want to do..

not what I want to do..

ANd then he makes this beautiful statement in verse 27..

2 Samuel 7:27 ESV

For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you.

David say…

AH.. now I see it..

something I could not even imagine before..

BUT NOW.. that I see it..

now that you have reaveled it to me..

I have the courage to pray it..

and ask for it..

and believe for it.

and stand on it..

why?

Because you have shown me..

You see when we humble oursleves before god..

and allow him to show us his ways..

we can begin to ask for the bigger things he shows us..

BUT IN HUMILITY..

WE MUST THEN SUBMIT TO HIS WAYS.. NOT OUR OWN..

Attitude Praise

finally, I want you to see the attitude david brings..

David doesnt begrudgingly say..

yeah do what you want to do god..

hes not mad that he cant have his own way..

but rather. .david apraoches the whole thing with a grateful heart and a heart of praise..

again becuase he understnads that its about god.. not him..

2 Samuel 7:22 ESV

Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

if were not careful we can get bitter with god..

because he has given us direction that we didnt nesscesarily ask for..

but it was direction HE wanted and we needed.

and we have to be carefule to approached god with praise and not resentment

Paul

The apostle paul tells us that we should be cheerful giver..

because it can be easy to resent god in our obiedeince in giving..

Humilty circle

additionally

giving god the praise helps us to stay humble..

because in giving him the praise we are continually declaring its him… not us.. who deserves the credit..

Ending

God wants to do imeassurably more..

BUT I NEED YOU TO UNDERSTNAD TONIGHT..

IT IS GOD WHO IS GOING TO DO THE WORK..

NOT US..

WE are just the vessle..

we are just the mouth peice..

we are just the conduit..

he is the force and the power..

us

thats why it doesnt matter your abilities or lack..

becuase its not about us..

All god wants from us is our willingness and obidience..

and he can accomplish more than we can imagine..

Altar

tonight i want to invite you an respond..

and I want to invite you to come and humble yourself before the lord..

and tell him..

you can have all my hopes and desires..

because I want you instead..

I want you to remind him that this this walk is about him not you..

pour your heart our in humility..

1 Peter 5:6 ESV

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,