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Are You Connected to the Power? Ephesians 1: 15-23

Are You Connected to the Power? Ephesians 1: 15-23. When we are disconnected from the source of power nothing will happen. Isn’t this true for many Christians? The power of God available to us.  The Holy Spirit living in us We are just not connected to that source of power.

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Are You Connected to the Power? Ephesians 1: 15-23

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  1. Are You Connected to the Power?Ephesians 1: 15-23 • When we are disconnected from the source of power nothing will happen.

  2. Isn’t this true for many Christians? • The power of God available to us. •  The Holy Spirit living in us • We are just not connected to that source of power. • Result: ineffective lives for serving in God’s kingdom. • Today: know the incomparably great power available to believers  those identified with Christ

  3. Review: • Paul wanted to encourage the believer he is writing to by praying for them. • Summary of Paul’s prayer: • That God would take them deeper and deeper into an intimate knowledge of Himself. • Ephesians 1: 17 [ESV] - “…that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him”

  4. 1. The Hope of God’s Calling • Believers in Christ have a living hope  the hope of eternal life • 2. The Riches of God’s Inheritance • We are God’s treasured possession • We need to live like those who are valued by God • “walking worthy of your calling” (Eph.4:1) • 3. The Power of God’s Strength • Believers in Christ need to know the power of God that is available to us.

  5. Paul doesn’t want us to live ineffective spiritual lives! • Ephesians 1:18 [ESV] - “…eyes of your hearts enlightened.” • What kind of power is available to us? • The same power that God used to raise Christ from the dead. • Just as the cross is the highest display of God’s love, so the resurrection is the ultimate display of God’s power. No created force could ever do this! (Kent Hughes)

  6. How does this power help us? • A. Saving Power • Romans 1:16 [ESV] – “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” • Only the power of God can transform our sinful life into a new creation • No one is beyond the grace of God or beyond the power of God’s forgiveness

  7. B. Sanctifying Power • God’s Spirit in us gives us power to live godly lives. • Romans 6:4 [ESV] – “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” • Ephesians 3:20 [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…”

  8. 1. God’s Power Raised Christ from the Dead • Ephesians 1:19b,20 [ESV] – “…according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.” • Greek: literally “dead ones” • Jesus was raised “out from” the dead ones. • Christ’s resurrection was the inauguration of all future resurrections • We should live in hope of our own resurrection to glory.

  9. 2. God’s Power Exalted Christ to His Right Hand • Ephesians 1: 20b [ESV] – “…seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” • Our focus should not be about making life comfortable here on earth. • Philippians 3: 20,21[ESV] – “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

  10. 3. God’s Power Put Everything in Submission to Christ • Ephesians 1:22 [ESV] – “…far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet” • Paul wants us as believers to understand the majesty of Christ • The power of Christ in us cannot be overthrown or defeated. • God has put everything under His feet  a metaphor for complete subjection to Christ’s rule.

  11. 4. God’s Power Made Christ Head of All For the Church • Ephesians 1:22,23 [ESV] – “…gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” • God gave Christ “to the church”  the church is the fullness of Christ. • Christ is the head and we are His body  we are His complement. • Christ is glorified in what we do through Him.

  12. God’s power brought about Christ’s exaltation • To access this power we need know Christ better, understand the glory of His exaltation, and believe it. • God’s power display’s Christ’s absolute lordship. • To access to this power we need to submit to His lordship. • Our problem – we are disconnected from the power source.

  13. Sin, ignorance, disbelief get in the way of us tapping into the power of God in us. • We are called to pray for one another that we would KNOW the power of God. • As Christians we should be aware that evil powers exist. • But we need not fear them. • Ephesians 1:21 [ESV] – “[Christ is] far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named.”

  14. Because no other power can rival him, and because in him the fullness of God lives, Christians do not have to look elsewhere for what they need for life. What they need is found in Christ. This power however, is not power in the abstract, it is relational power. Power that is known because of being bound to the one in whom power resides. (Klyne Snodgrass, NIV Application Commentary)

  15. Christ is sufficient and nothing else is needed. • Where do we get our identity? • Christians are identified and shaped by our relationship with Jesus Christ and His life, death and resurrection. • God’s power doesn’t remove us from persecution, danger, difficulty, and death, but makes us more than conquerors in all these things. This power we are talking about is not magical powers – powers to escape all the difficulties life throws at us. It is power to live for God in an evil world. (Snodgrass)

  16. 2 Peter 1:3 [NLT] – “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. • Why do we not see change taking place in the lives of Christians? • Paul will show us in the rest of the book of Ephesians.

  17. The power of the Holy Spirit, through the resurrected Christ is available to all Christians – by faith. • God’s grace supplies the power - Our faith that takes hold and uses that power. • Paul prayed that the Ephesians believers “would know the immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward us who believe.” • Will that prayer be answered in your life here today? • Believe it! Take hold of it! Live it!

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