"God wants to do more than you can imagine"

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.

Recap

last night we began our journey through this verse in ephesians 3:20-21

and we spoke about how god wants to do the imeassurably more in our life.

He wants to do things beyond our imagination or comprehension..

but that it is God who will do the work in our lives..

He is the power at work in our lives that accomplishes the promise.

we are simply the vessel..

we are simply the conduit..

and its our responsibility to humble ourselves before him.

to sumbit to his plan and works

and to give him praise for it in the procsess..

Today

Today I want us to continue on in the passage..

And talk about the “what” that God wants to do..

I want us to talk about the imeassurably more.

Hopes and dreams

I want you to close your eyes for a moment..

and I want you to think about what you want life to look like 5 years from now..

what are your dreams for your life..

What are your hopes..

what are your dreams for your ministry or your chruch..

what are your dreams for the furture..

Question

Now I want to ask you a question about those dreams..

Are your dreams bigger than your abilities?

Are they dreams that need god to interject into your life so they will happen?

or are they a simple list of plans that you know you can accomplish?

I want to challange you as you anwser..

If the anwser to the first two questions is no..

then your dreams may not be gods dreams for you..

why?

Becauses gods sized dreams require a gods sized god..

which is much bigger than us..

Why would we go through that exercise?

It wasnt to beat you up about your dreams..

Rather, I want to encourage you today that what paul says it true..

That God is able, and desires, to do imeassurably more than we can hope or ask..

far more than we can comprehend or even dream..

He wants to do things that require his intervention..

that are God siszed in your life..

God wants to do imeasurably more..

Imeassurably more

So what does imeasuarable more mean?

Well, it literally means more than we can measure..

or more than we can comprehend..

something that too big to see every aspec of..

in fact paul tells us in his statment that its even more than we can ask for..

BECAUSE its more than we can imagine..

You cant ask for what you cannot comprehend..

Message

the message bible..

which is a paraphrase bible says it like this..

Ephesians 3:20 MSG

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

In other words..

the things god wants to do in your life..

the things that god wants to do in your ministry..

The things he wants to do in verbo de dios across the church and churches..

you may not have even thought of it yet..

because its so big..

ITs god sized..

not us sized..

Its bigger than you and I..

bigger than the church..

bigger than spain even..

and even bigger than the earth..

because its results are eternal..

We cant even imagine or comprehind it right now..

And we may know a small peice.. but the big picture is to much to understand

Comprehension

You see as people..

we tend to think in logic..

instead of in faith..

even as ministers..

And their is nothing wrong with logic..

but when it comes to the ablities of god it can be an issue.

because we cannot comprehend the grandness of god…

Logic

so in logic we ask “What can I do”

because we want to know what we plan will be accomlished.

We dont want to try to do something that we dont think we can do..

no one likes to fail..

or, if your like me, you like to figuire things out..

you want to be a fixer..

but the problem is that this qeustion is based on our ability and comprehension..

and we know that we are limited..

after all.. if in our finite minds we could fully understand the ways of god and who he is..

he would not be worthy to be god..

But god is bigger than us..

so our ministry before him requires a different question..

Faith

Because faith asks the question..

“What will god do”

Because god is only limited to god..

which means he is not limited..

he is not limited by logic..

or time..

or space..

or might..

or ability..

Universe

He created the universe by speaking it forth literally out of nothing..

and its creation both defied and then created the laws of physics and humanity

even more God does not solely exists in this creation..

he is outside of it.. and bigger than it as well..

so creation cannot fully contain him and his power..

So when we ask

“What will god do”

the anwser is not limited in the nature of god ability.. .

its only limited in our finite understanding ..

because with god.. anything is possible.

correct?

Jesus

didnt Jesus tell us this?

Jesus told us in

Luke 18:27 ESV

But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”

and this was after he told us in

Luke 17:6 ESV

And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

and in

Mark 11:22–23 ESV

And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.

Key to imessurably more..

I want you to take notice because Jesus gives us the key to imeassurably more…

Jesus says when we ask and think in faith..

IMPOSSIBLE THINGS BECOME POSSIBLE...

things we cant even think of or imagine… GOD CAN AND WILL DO..

no one ever looked at a mountian and said..

man we need to pick that thing up and move it..

its beyond our comprehention of the possible..

but Jesus said..

if we have faith..

things we cant even imagine begin to happen..

the imeasurable becomes possible

New testament

the new testament is full of things people never would have asked for before Jesus came around..

because they did not comprehend they were possible..

Lazarus

look at lazarus..

when Jesus came to lazarus tomb..

he told them to remove the rock..

because he was about to raise him up again..

and even to the last minute they told him how impossible it was..

but Master.. it will stink..

hes been dead four days..

BUT JESUS DEFIED WHAT WAS LOGICAL AND POSSIBLE..

PEter

look at peter..

Jesus told him to cast the net on the other side into the deep..

by logic peter knew the fish should not be there..

and he argues with Jesus..

but then finally relents and does it..

and the imposssible happens..

There is a massive catch of fish…

Healings

by faith the women with the issue of blood

who could not be healed for over 12 years by doctors is healed instantly..

because she dared to come to Jesus

by faith jiruses daughter is brought back to life

even though they told him to stop bothering the teacher because she was dead..

because he dared to believe Jesus

by faith the lame are healed..

the mute speak..

the blind see..

the sick are made well..

NOT BECAUSE IT IS A LOGICAL THING..

NOT BECAUSE A GOOD CHRISTIAN PREACHER HAD A SOLUTION..

BUT BECAUSE SOMEONE HAD FAITH..

ive come to remind you today..

that pastoring.. and minsitering.. and planting churches is not all about figuiring things out and finding what works..

so much as it is about believing that god simply is who he says he is and is willing to do the impossible still..

and having faith that he will

WE HAVE TO HAVE FAITH AND LET IT LEAD OUR ACTIONS AND LIVES!

we have to believe that god can do imeassurebly more

we have to lay asside whats possible and impossible many times and instead believe that GOD WILL DO SOMETHING WE CANNOT EVEN COMPREHEND..

but we dont get their by thinking what can and cant be done..

we get their with faith..

Faith

so what is faith?

well hebrews says

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

and through this verse and this chapter we could talk about many different aspecs of faith..

but I want to focus on three aspecs of faith today that we find in Hebrews chapter 11

three key aspecs that I think give some practical practice to our faith.

Three that I think are extremely important in regard to seeking god to do the imeasurable

first is this..

1. belief

The root of faith is belief.

Hebrews 11:6 ESV

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Jesus in mark 9:23

Mark 9:23 ESV

And Jesus said to him, “ ‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.”

Faith is rooted in belief..

it is the assurance of things hoped for..

an asurance of the soul that God is who he says he is and will do what he says he will do.

Belief definition

to believe is to accept somethinng as truth

belief is the acceptance of truth..

it is To be sure of the truth of what is presented to you..

When it comes to god..

our belief is found in our acceptance of the revelation of god that has been given to us.

The, who is god, that has been revealed throughout scripture..

Hebrews 11

In fact hebrews 11 is called the hall of faith..

and each and every person it speaks of tells the story of how they believed god when he spoke and revealed himself..

The chapter says..

Hebrews 11:8 (ESV)

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

God spoke to abraham..

he revealed himself..

abrham believed god was god..

and then went..

Charactor

HE BELIEVED GOD..

NOT IN WHAT GOD HAD ALREADY DONE..

HE had not seen god move yet..

BUT HE BELIEVE IN WHO GOD REVEALED HIMSELF AS..

the god of the universe...

and our belief in god..

is not based only on what we have seen..

Its based on the acceptance of truth that God is who he says he is..

look at salvation..

Ex.

Paul

paul will tell us in ephesians 2:8-9

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

salvation requires faith..

but lets look at the process of salvation..

romans 10:9

Romans 10:9–10 (ESV)

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

paul says if you conffess Jesus is who he says he is..

and believe he did what he says he did..

you will be saved..

It is an acceptance of the truth.

Root

The essence of faith.. the root of faith is belief..

when we come to salvation salvation..

we believe that Jesus is the final sacrifice he is said to be..

that he is the god of the universe and creator of the world..

If we do not..

their is not salvation..

so if we are going to have faith.. we must believe..

Imeassurable things..

when it comes to the imeassurable more..

charactor of god

we have to believe that god is who he says he is..

the allpowerful..

all sufficient..

creator of the universe..

the one who loves us like his children...

the one who works all things together for the good of those who love him..

the one who we is and is to come..

and that God can and will do more than we can imagine..

WE HAVE TO BELIEVE THE IMPOSSIBLE IS STILL POSSIBLE..

2.Trust

Secondly if we are going to have faith for the imeasurable..

we have to not only believe and accept truth..

but we have to trust

if belief is the root, Trust is the stem of faith…

Whats the difference between belief and trust?

Trust define

trust is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of somone..

trust is not just a belief in who god is..

its is a dependability on the nature and charactor of god..

You see belief says I accept who you are as you are revealed..

but trust says.. I stand on your reliability, truth and ability..

Its is putting my feet on the rock of christ and knowing it will never move..

Trust is believe that has been strengthed to a knowing..

It was the reason that so many people were able to move on behalf of who god was in the scripture..

because they did not simply believe..

but they knew who god was and what he would do..

Proverbs

proverbs tells us how we are to trust god..

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

You see if we are going to have faith for the imeassurable..

its going to require us to trust god

and trust that has been matured goes even further to the third step..

Action.

3. Action

you see if belief if the root..

and trust is the stem..

action is the fruit..

Action is the outward product … of trust..

If I trust.. I act..

Process..

I believe god … so I trust god.. and act accordingly

and thus I put my faith in him in doing so..

our trust should lead to action..

Abraham

look at what hebrews 11 says about abraham..

verse 17..

Hebrews 11:17–19 ESV

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

by faith..

abraham believed who god was so strongly..

he trusted him so much..

and stood on his charactor and nature..

that he brought.. he acted..

He brought issac to the mountain..

the only sign of the fulfilment of the promise given to him..

to be sacrificed..

becuase he believed god would raise him again if he was slain..

ABRAHAMS BELIEF IN WHO GOD WAS..

DROVE HIM TO TRUST GOD SO MUCh..

THAT HE HAD NO PROBLEM ACTING WHEN GOD SAID..

GIVE ME YOU SON..

Difficult.

ill be honest..

Ive learned in my life that that is the most difficult thing we do as christians..

We have no issue believing..

but when it has to mature to standing and acting our faith is truely tested..

Why do you think that god sends situations into our life that force us to trust and act..

because it grows our faith.

why is it difficult?

like we already said..

many times it involved us not understanding whats happening and how it will come to pass..

BUt God never called us to undersntad the how..

or the when..

only have faith in the WHO.. and be obiedient at all cost..

FAITH REQUIRES YOU TO BELIEVE, TO TRUST.. AND ACT..

EVEN WHEN IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE..

You see our faith in god and who he is will directly dertermine our ability to believe him for and to see the imeassurable come to pass.. .

Ending

How big is your faith today?

do you believe god can do the imeassurable?

Do you trust him in a way that is drives you to act on that belief?

Or are you simply trying to figuire how whats possible for you to do asside from him?

I believe today..

God wants to raise your level of faith..

But the questions is do you want it?

Difficult

Ill be honest..

If the anweser is yes..

Its gonna be difficult..

because it will mean their will be many things outside of your control that you will have to walk out trust for..

youll have to pray more than work..

because its going to reguire you to depend on him..

BUT..

in the end..

its going to bring forth a harvest in your life and ministry.. that you could never compehend or imagine

do you want god to raise your level of faith?

do you want him to do the imeassurable through you?