HOPE FOR RENEWAL

INTRO

CONNECTION

Good Morning

We are in week 3 of a 6-Week series entitled ‘RENEWAL | Cultivating Our Hearts for Transformation.’

DEFINE RENEWAL...

Refreshment, release, and advancement that individuals and/or churches experience when they are aligned with God’s presence.

It is when you gather the fading embers of campfire and place another dry log on top. Together the embers come to life and soon the fire is raging, producing both heat and light.

Together, we are pursuing renewal as we dig deep into Ephesians 3:14-21

We can’t manufacture renewal or produce it ourselves

We humbly present ourselves before God with:

Repentance

Prayer

Fixing our eyes on Jesus

READ/PRAY

REVIEW

“WHEN I THINK OF ALL THIS...”

You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing

Before God said, ‘Let there be light’ - He loves you

He chose you and declared you perfect in his eyes

Before God said, “ Let there be space between the waters...” - He chose to adopt you, to call you his son or his daughter.

God is rich in kindness and purchased your freedom with his own blood.

God is calling to himself a people, among whom he will dwell for all eternity

First to the Jew

Then to the Gentile

We were dead in our sin - not mostly dead is slightly alive - but completely dead in our sin.

Rich in mercy, God loved us and gave us life when Jesus was raised from the dead.

“God saved you by grace and you can’t take credit for your belief - it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for you doing good things - this is why none of us can boost.”

Now Jew and Gentiles are members of God’s family

“I FALL TO MY KNEES...”

The normal posture in Jewish and early Christian communities was to pray standing up.

Bowing was not uncommon but it communicates a humble submission, often used when we are in utter desperation.

WEEK ONE - PRAYER FOR RENEWAL

“PRAY TO THE FATHER, CREATOR OF EVERYTHING IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH.”

Renewal is not something we can manufacture.

1) Repentance, 2) Prayer, 3) Jesus is lifted High

WEEK TWO - SOIL OF RENEWAL

“PRAYER THAT FROM HIS GLORIOUS, UNLIMITED RESOURCES...”

We plant the seed of hope for renewal FULLY into the soil of God’s infinite and glorious nature.

Who he is...

He makes himself available to us.

WEEK THREE - TODAY - HOPE FOR RENEWAL

This morning we are going to focus on the words: “He will empower you with inner strength, through his Spirit” (NLT).

“he may grant you to be be strengthened with power through the Spirit in your inner being” (ESV).

PASSAGE

ONE POINT WITH THREE QUALIFIERS

This phrase has one main point: Strengthened

Three Qualifiers: Intensifies and enhances our understanding of the main point

Power

Inner Being

Through his Spirit

STREGNTHENED

ACTIVE OR PASSIVE

This is in the passive voice, indicating that it is not something that we can do on our own but it is something that God must do in us.

God isn’t merely fortifying or adding to our strength as though is our spotter while lifting weights and when we run out of steam he gives us a nudge.

It that we have no strength, no power and he

Acorn falling to the ground and dying

SUPERNATURAL STRENGTHENING

The strength that God supplies is completely different than our strength

God’s strength is glorious and unlimited

All powerful, creator of everything in heaven and earth.

The kind of power that can create everything we can see and can’t see with the power of his spoken word.

ILLUSTRATION

The image that comes to mind is like this toy I remember as a kid

Held together my tension

In God’s presence it falls apart

Cut the string - Dead and in pieces - Woe is Me!

God turns it into a living breathing giraffe

This is what strengthened means in this passage.

POWER

HOW POWERFUL IS GOD?

Creator of everything in heaven and on earth

Glorious

Unlimited

VERSES

"Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of my hand; I act and who can reverse it” (Isa. 43:13)?

“I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart” (Ezekiel 36:26).

“I pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe in Him” (Ephesians 1:19).

God doesn’t just strengthen the string that was holding us together. He transforms us from broken, hard plastic into life.

INNER BEING

“the heart in the Bible refers to the center where your mind, will, and emotions meet. It is in all three spaces that the inner man is represented.”

HEAD

HEART

HANDS

Outwardly - falling apart

2 Corinthians 4:16 “ That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed everyday.”

CONTRAST (OUTWARD & INWARD)

HEAD

Confusion Confidence

Self-Reliance Surrender

HEART

Distraction Devotion

Worry Worship

HANDS

Selfishness Sacrificial

Pride Praise

2 Corinthians 4:8-10

“We are pressed on every side by our troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not given to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.”

THROUGH HIS SPIRIT

JESUS TOLD US ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT

He would be our Helper (John 14)

Comforter, Advocate, Intercessors, Counselor, Strengthener

He will teach us all things and will help us remember what Jesus teaches us.

PERSONAL POWER

Personal Presence VS. Impersonal Force

Not an inanimate resource...

PERSISTENT POWER

The Spirit of God isn’t an energy drink or shot of caffeine when we start to run on empty.

It’s not a shot of nitro to help us get through life.

It is steady, personal, powerful, unlimited. It keeps going and going and going. It doesn’t falter, fail, or fade.

PASTORAL POWER

The Holy Spirit is our comforter and counselor (John 14:26).

It’s not just a brut force the pushes us through life. The Holy Spirit comforts, counsels, encourages.

CONCLUSION

DWELL/ HOME IN YOUR HEARTS

This verb infers a permanent indwelling rather than a temporary rental.

The heart here is another way of repeating “inner being.”

The center of man from where our thoughts, affections, and decisions originate.

The Holy Spirit isn’t a supplement - He’s the source.

AS YOU TRUST HIM

UNBELIEVER

BELIEVER

BAPTISM

Romans 6:4 “We were buried with Jesus by baptism into his death, in order than, Just as Jesus was raised form the dead by the power of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

Baptism does not save us - rather - baptism is a public display of n inward reality. Only the person and work of Jesus Christ can save us.

Baptism is an act of obedience that signifies our adoption in Christ as public declaration that we belong to God.

Just as we are once saved through faith - so a person is baptised once after having trusted on Jesus.

COMMUNION

The Lord’s Supper is a celebration of the presence of God in our midst,

bringing us into communion with God and with one another;

feeding and nourishing our souls.

Anticipates the day when we will eat and drink with Jesus in the Father’s Kingdom.

This is why Christ commanded all christians to continuously eat the bread and drink of the cup in remembrance of Jesus whenever they gather together.

WORDING

BREAD

The night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and gave thanks and break it saying, ‘This is my body, which is broken for you, do this in remembrance of me.’”

CUP

In the same way, after the passover meal, Jesus took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, do this whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.

For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he returns.”

BENEDICTION

GIVING

CONNECTION

APPLICATION

Personal

Memorize Ephesians 3:14-21

Pray this for yourself

Family

Daily - Pray

Weekly - Contact

Monthly - Meal