Our God Is Able/God Can

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Ephesians 3:20–21 NASB95

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

We learned that God “can do a new thing”

And when God works His people should be ready to give Him praise.

Today we want to reninforce that thought with a look at the reality that God Is Able

Whenever God has a destination, direction, task for His peole God ALWAYS makes a way. - God Can

Whenever God has a plan, He always gets it done

Isaiah 14:27 ““For the Lord of hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?””

Job 42:2 ““I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.”

God’s plan cannot be stopped, not come to fruition

That’s why I need to stick with His plan. His plans always work MINE DOESN’T

For the church to continue to thrive and be impactful and potent, she must stay in line with the will of God

This has less to do with methodology than it has to do with the message.

God has 100% success rate when it comes to fulfilling a purpose he has set out to do. Why?

God Can

We have been studying certain passages to help empower us to believe that God can.

Can we grow, develop, accomplish more? Yes, because God Can

To believe that the church will continue to thrive in generations to come. Yes we can because God Can

The way God has decided to do that is through you!

When God considered all the agents that will be involved in fulfilling this plan, your name came up

We are not just beneficiaries of the plan but agents, bearers

Don’t think that gathering on the first day of the week is the apex of Christianity - we see it’s essentiality but it’s not the entirety

I would like us to see the church the way God sees the church

We need to see that the church doesn’t belong to us. It’s not your pet project

We need to see the church is not under my protection, no need to police it

We need to see that the church is not a club/grocery store where I can decide whether what God says is right for me

When you were added to the body, you became a servant, worker, a member (true sense)

But it goes deeper than that

I need to see the church as a part of God’s Eternal Purpose to reconcile the world back to Himself.

Ephesians 1:4 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love”

And for as long as this world exists, God will keep drawing people to Him to become beneficiaries of this PURPOSE

To us this might look as a huge task and it is

But God Can

It’s hard to keep something going generations

[Ford, Hersheys, etc.]

God wants that when our great great great great grandchildren are born, His Church is There.

What does that have to do with me?

God decided to use you to do it!

GOD WILL accomplish His purpose, do you want to be part of it?

CHAP 1 - You are so blessed

CHAP 2 - You had so much mess

It is difficult to appreciate where you are when you don’t acknowledge where you have been

APPL. Toting water, atenna TV, TV vs. Radio

You’re blessed, but you were DEAD

Now let me tell you what God did to change it - Chap. 3

The mystery was in God’s mind>prophets of Old>Apostles and prophets>YOU>through the ages

The eternal purpose of God is being carried out by God’s people - the church

That’s huge, How are we going to get the power to do this?

>Ephesians 3:14 “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,”

Paul employs what we should all employ when undergoing anything

>Ephesians 3:15 “from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,”

Paul acknowledges a characteristic of God that emphasises the sovereignty of God. “In Him we live move and have our very being” Acts 17:28.

>Ephesians 3:16 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man,”

Paul wants God to give you something that can be used for your benefit

He also highlights that the storehouse of God is bountiful and ALWAYS sufficient

e.g. Eph 1:19 (power) Eph 2:4 (mercy) Eph 2:7 (grace) - God’s stores are bountiful

Now Paul is appealing to the Father to bless from that palce of bounty so that the Spirit works in our spirit giving to us a strength that enables us from the inisde out.

Ephesians 3:17 “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,”

The reason for the petition for strength is for Christ to have His dwelling in us

#1 - The word used here is not for a casual dwelling, but a place of residence. The idea here is for Christ to feel at home in your heart

How much easier will it be for us to accomplish God’s will for us when Christ feels at home in my heart

I need to do things that makes Christ feel at home in my heart

#2 - “being rooted and grounded in love - Paul veers from strength and dwelling to LOVE

Love becomes a key element, because Paul will link it to:

God fulfilling His will in bringing salvation - Ephesians 1:5 “In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,”

God fulfilling His will through us so the church can display His wisdom - Ephesians 4:15 “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,”

Ephesians 3:18 “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,”

No object is given, so we rely on the context - the conrext suggests that these dimensions refer to LOVE

What it amounts to is the vastness of Love, not my personal understanding of the dimensions

This also is corporate, this is something Paul prays for the whole body to get to

Ephesians 3:19 “and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

The “know” (ginosko) is experential knowledge. This is not just talk love this is walk love Ephesians 5:2 “and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”

What Paul does here is, He prays for what he just taught them

Ephesians 3:20–21 “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

After looking at all of that, it’s easy to say “that’s a lot”, “can this really be done?”

When Paul praises God he says, “To Him who is able”

This simply means ‘God can’

Whatever the task or the challenge, if it means the continuation of the church - ‘God Can’

“I might think I can’t but think, God Can”

“Do” - this word means to “carry out or perform an action (used in vs 11, Heb1:2)

How is God able to do?

“far more abundantly” - in a manner beyond the furthest degree

What we ask or think (to form a mental image of something that is not present or that is not the case)