A Church Confident in God’s Power

As we come to the passage that we are looking at today, this is, if you like, the hinge point in the letter. Up to this point, Paul has give the Christians at Ephesus, and us

Teaching
Theology
Testimony

Now we have this prayer, Paul is taking time out to encourage the Ephesian Christians, talking about God’s great wealth and abundance of power.

Before he launches back into teaching again, he prays for the people for:
strength v.16
depth of love 17
people know fullness of God through God’s power 18-20

Interestingly, power is mentioned in this passage 3 times. That’s the title of the talk A Church confident in God’s power Crucially, Paul opens this paragraph and the preceding one with the words “For this reason.” Without wanting to recap too much on what was said last week, I want to set the scene again by taking some of what Paul said in v.7-13. Paul talks in testimony terms about what has brought him this far. No stranger to adversity, but he speaks with confidence about how it seems to be part of God’s plan. The suffering that he is facing will be used by God for his glory and for that of other Christians (v.13) That’s a confident guy. Confident in his theology, which can explain his situation. Confident that his imprisonment is not wasted. Confident that God will work through him, even though he’s inside. That’s big stuff.

Are we that confident? Should we be? What are we talking about when we talk about confidence?

In looking at Confidence in God’s power I want to suggest this morning one thing that confidence isn’t and 3 things that confidence perhaps is.
First of all, what is confidence not?

Confidence is not arrogance - misplaced self assurance that often covers up deep inadequacy underneath. Both the OT and NT have examples of this. In Numbers 20, Moses is leading the Israelites through the desert and they are engaged in their favourite hobby, complaining!! (If complaining was paid employment; Israelites would have been a hive of industry) “Oh, woe is us,” they are going, “We should have stayed in Egypt, we’ve got nothing here, not even any water to drink.” (v.3-5)

Moses, possibly getting close to the end of his tether, (30 odd years of this can get a bit wearing) calls on God and asks for his help. God tells him what to do, “Speak to the rock, and water will come out of it.” (v.. Moses calls the people together, but instead of doing what God tells him, he hits the rock with his staff and he tells the people, “So, are we gonna have to give you water again?” That’s where he goes wrong. Moses had done this before by hitting the rock (Exodus 17), instead of listening to what God had told him, he did what he’d done before. Not only that, but in a moment of stress, Moses said that it was he and Aaron that were doing this, not God by his power.

Moses confidence was replaced by arrogance, that he could do this kind of stuff, his way,
not God’s way.
Some might say that God was a little harsh not letting Moses into the promised land after a little slip up. But it was a slip up that said, “Hey, I don’t need God, I can do this miracle stuff on my own.” As Moses found out, being the leader and example to the nation or Israel, that amount of arrogance was just too much to just let go.

In NT Ephesus, people try their hand at name dropping. Acts 19:13-16 when Paul is actually in Ephesus tells us that some Jewish guys tried to deal with a demon possessed man by saying. “Come out of him in the name of Jesus Christ of whom Paul preaches.” What happened? They name dropped and he dropped them. This guy beat the living daylights out of these 7 other guys. Prefixing things with Jesus’ name or any other name for that matter doesn’t mean Jesus Christ authorises it.

History has shown how disasters have occurred with people doing things in God’s name which don’t have God’s blessing. Crusades, Holocaust, KKK etc. We need the authority of Jesus Christ to make anything we do successful. We can’t just rely on the name; we need to rely on the person behind that name in order for things to happen. Sounds obvious, but it’s heartbreaking how many things fall by the wayside because they have the name of Jesus at the front and don’t have Jesus at the heart. That’s what confidence is not.

But what about what confidence is?
Paul was a pretty definite kind of guy. How is he confident and not arrogant? I want to suggest 3 things from the passages that may be helpful to focus on when we ask the question. What is it to be confident in God’s power? Not in order of importance but just to think of as they are.
First - Confidence in who we are.

Paul was confident in God’s power because he had seen it at work in who he was and what he was called to do (v.7-9) Paul had confidence in who he was, what his gifts were and what he was passionate about. One of my undergraduate lecturers in NT told our class one day that he was where he was for two reasons. He had a passion for academic learning about the Bible. He’d be useless out on the mission field! He knew what he was good at, and what he loved.

I want to ask you what are you passionate about? What do you get up for in the morning? What puts a smile on your face? What breaks your heart and makes you shed tears? Can you think about this week 2 things that make you smile and 1 thing that breaks your heart. Some of that may end up as work within the mission here at Oaktree, some of it may be independent of that, the key is being confident in where we have been called to serve God. Confidence comes alongside passion, knowing we care so desperately about something gives good clues as to where our heart is.

Secondly - Confidence in God’s Guidance
Sometimes the enormity of the task can overwhelm us. How on earth can we crack this one? Confidence in God’s power goes hand in hand with confidence that God knows what he is doing. Paul was confident, even from his gaol cell, that God could use him. We need to trust that God won’t put us into a situation that we can’t handle. God doesn’t want us to fail, because he believes in us. Have you ever thought about that? No matter how we may feel about God, He believes in us. Whatever we have been called to do, God believes we can do it. Remember 60’s and 70’s show and films Mission Impossible? Fortunately, we’re not doing Mission Impossible, Why? Because we have all the resources of God’s power behind us (v.20). Because God believes we can do it. Encourage you be confident in where you are called, God knows what he’s doing.

Thirdly - Confidence in God’s power is confidence in the Holy Spirit
I’m the first to admit, it’s risky being confident in the Holy Spirit. Because he has the power to take careful planning and strategising and blow it all completely out of the water. He has the power to show up whenever he likes and do what he likes. I guess that’s one of the perks of being God’s agent of his kingdom work here on earth. Mark, in one his sermons earlier on in the year, used a quotation which said:
“It is heresy to expect Christian behaviour from those who don’t have Jesus Christ.” But with that in mind, we need to make sure we don’t lower our expectations of what the Holy Spirit can and will do if he chooses to. Peter got first hand experience of this in Acts 10 when he was a guest at Cornelius the Centurion’s house. We read in vv 30-43 that Peter gave his testimony of what took him there. Then v.44 says that the Holy Spirit came on the people who listening “while Peter was still speaking.” How rude is that?
It’s a well known fact that in the Christian church the Holy Spirit isn’t allowed anywhere near the congregation until at least the preacher has finished his third point!!! That’s the key, the Holy Spirit moves and does things when he sees the time is right. That’s why when we talk about being confident in God’s power, we need to be talking about the Holy Spirit who is the agent to God’s work here on earth. When we feel beaten up by failure, or annoyed that something hasn’t gone according to plan we need to make sure that anything we’re tackling has the Holy Spirit right at the centre of it and the we leave him free to do what he wants, even if that means interrupting our best laid plans. If we’re going to a church confident in God’s power, we need to be confident in the Holy Spirit and let him do his work.
Some of the Common Worship liturgy for communion says, “Send us out in the power of your Spirit, to live and work to your praise and glory.”
What does that mean, for us, for you today and for the rest of this week?
We are called to be a Church confident in God’s power, therefore: Be confident - in who you are and what God has laid on your heart, God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called.
Be confident - in God’s guidance, what happens next, at the moment is still an open book, but as with Paul all that time ago, God knows what he’s doing.
Finally - Be confident in the Holy Spirit, who, (as Paul says) by God’s power can do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine.
Not just on Sunday, but Monday, the rest of the week and into the future, whatever that holds.