Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

Welcome to a brand new series called Come Together. Yes, it is a Beatles series! Some of you were busting when the service opened up today. Did our band nail that song or what?!?

It is blowing my mind how much the Beatles are still in the news forty years after they broke up. The entire Beatles catalog has been digitally remastered and it was released this week. The Beatles Rock Band video game was released this week and the sales have already been huge.

It’s because the Beatles are timeless. They were groundbreaking when they were together, but their music has survived, not only because it sounds amazing, but because a lot of their music expresses longings and desires that are central to all people, regardless of what generation they are living in.

That’s why we decided that it was time to launch a Beatles series here at ACC. It has nothing to do with a desire to be cool or hip or relevant. Honestly, we don’t care about that stuff at all. We decided to do this series because we’re talking about needs and desires that God has hardwired into every one of us.

We’ll be walking step-by-step through the New Testament book of Ephesians in this series. God is going to use His Word to rock us in this series. We couldn’t be more excited about what God is going to do, so let’s pray, and then we’ll get after it.

The Beatles released their album called Help! in 1965. John Lennon wrote and sang the title song of that album that our band opened the service with today. In a later interview, he said that the song was a sincere cry for help, as the pressures of the Beatles’ fame and his own unhappiness began to build. He said that he regretted changing it from a downbeat, melancholy song to an upbeat pop song. The song was changed as result of commercial pressures, but John Lennon never intended for it to be an upbeat, poppy song. He wrote it because he was sincerely crying out for help.

A lot of us can resonate with that. We put on a happy-go-lucky face because we feel pressure to do that. We live like our life is a pop song, but the reality is that our life is more like a dirge. We just mask it because we feel like we have to. We’re told that only weak people admit that they need help. Strong people, together people, spiritual people don’t need help.

That is the biggest load of garbage I’ve ever heard. It is a lie straight from the mouth of Satan. He wants you to believe that only weaklings admit they need help. You’re supposed to be able to do life on your own. You’re supposed to always have all your stuff together. You’re supposed to be independent.

That is a lie. Here is the truth…there is no such thing as an independent person. Every single one of us needs help in a bad kind of way. The problem is a lot of us are either too prideful to admit that we need help, or we don’t really believe that help is available.

The Bible absolutely destroys those ideas. We’re spending the next four weeks in the book of Ephesians, so let’s open the Scripture and get after it. We’re starting in Ephesians 1.

The book of Ephesians is a letter that Paul wrote to the church in the city of Ephesus. Now, we’re in a Beatles series, so we need to be clear that the Paul in question isn’t McCartney. Different Paul. This would be the Apostle Paul. Maybe this Paul also played a mean bass guitar. I don’t know. But this is the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus.

Ephesians 1, pick it up in verse 18. Paul tells the Ephesians believers, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,

far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” (Ephesians 1:18-21, NIV)

There is some great stuff here. God makes it so clear, not only that we need help, but that He is our help. He has given us His power to help us in our lives.

Most Christians will agree with that statement. If I asked you, “Do you believe you have the power of God to help you in your life?” most of us would say, “Yes!” We say we believe it because we think we’re supposed to believe it. But let’s be honest…most of us live like we don’t believe this is true.

If you really believe this, if you really believe that God’s power is available in your life, then every single thing in your life will be different. It will change everything.

Let’s go back and start unpacking this text. Right at the beginning of our passage, Paul prayed that God would open the eyes of the Ephesians’ heart so they could see God’s “incomparably great power.”

If you’ve read this before, you probably glossed right over these words. But hang on a second. This is big. Paul prayed that God would open the eyes of their hearts so they could see God’s power. Not the eyes in their head, the eyes of their heart.

Sometimes we can’t see what God is doing with our eyes. If you want to see God’s power become a reality in your life, sometimes you’ve got to stop using the eyes in your head and start using the eyes of your heart.

Some of us take a, “I’ve got to see it to believe it” approach. God often takes our lives in the other direction. God says, “You’ve got to believe it to see it.”

We want to see it with our eyes. God says we’ve got to see it with our hearts. That means that what God is doing might not make sense. We might not be able to see physical evidence of what God is up to. But that’s because His power isn’t often seen through these eyes, but through these eyes.

If you don’t believe me, go back and look at what the Bible says. Verse 19 in our text tells us who the power of God is for. “It is for us who believe.” It’s not for us who see. It’s for us who believe.

If you want the power of God to help you in your life, you’ve got to believe in God and believe in His power. Faith is a prerequisite.

That’s why the Bible says, “We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7, NIV)

Insisting that God show us tangible evidence of what He is doing isn’t faith. Insisting that a move of God always makes sense to us isn’t faith. Faith is trusting that God is working even when you can’t see it and even when you don’t understand it. Just because you can’t see or understand what God is doing doesn’t mean that He’s doing nothing.

Perry Noble wrote, “Too many people miss what God has for them because they always expect that His next step will make perfect sense!”

Actually, just the opposite is true. If you want to live a life fueled by the power of God, then you’re not going to understand everything. You may not always see the evidence that you want to see. You may not have every question answered to your liking. That’s why the Bible says that we live by faith, not by sight.

There’s a great story that a lot of you might not be familiar with. It’s actually one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It’s in 2 Kings 6. The king of Aram was at war with Israel during the time of the prophet, Elisha. The king of Aram had sent all his troops to surround Elisha’s city in the middle of the night. Elisha’s servant got up the next morning and saw that the city was surrounded.

Check this out. “When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” the servant asked.

“Don't be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

And Elisha prayed, “O LORD, open his eyes so he may see.”

All Elisha’s servant could see was the army that surrounded the city. They had cut off every possible means of escape. The city was completely hemmed in, and the servant thought that he and Elisha were as good as dead.

But he couldn’t see what God was doing. He was looking through these eyes instead of these eyes. That’s when Elisha stepped in and said, “Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

Then he prayed for God to open the servant’s eyes so he could see what was really going on. Check this out.

Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:15-17, NIV)

That story absolutely pumps me up! All the servant could see was the army that had surrounded their city. He couldn’t see what God was doing, but that didn’t mean that God was doing nothing. The army of God had completely encircled them and was ready to fight for them.

The army of God was just as real as the army from Aram. Just because the servant couldn’t see it didn’t mean that the army wasn’t there. Just because you can’t see what God is doing doesn’t mean that He’s doing nothing.

Sometimes all you can see is the opposing army. All you can see is the obstacle, the problem, the discouragement, or the pain. What you can’t see is how God is controlling the situation…but God is in control even when things seem out of control. And that’s where a lot of us run into trouble. It’s not that we don’t believe in God. It’s not that we don’t believe that God can act in our lives.

But the problem is that sometimes our God is just too small. We believe in God. We believe in God’s power…except when it comes to our situation. When it comes to our situation, God is just too small to handle it.

Go back to our text from Ephesians 1. Paul blows the idea of a small God out of the water. He reminds us that God’s power is “incomparably great.”

A lot of us are control freaks. We want to take the reigns and run everything. We want to plan our lives. We want to know how everything in our lives is going to work out exactly. We want to be in control of our lives.

This control freak mentality is borne out of a very small view of God. We need to take control because either we don’t trust that God will come through or we don’t believe that God can come through.

No. God’s power is “incomparably great.” His power dwarfs our power. So in reality, me controlling my own life is one of the dumbest things I could possibly do. Why would I want to run things on my own very limited power when God wants to infuse my life with his incomparably great power? It’s no contest.

Now, check this out. Paul said, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know…his incomparably great power for us who believe.

That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…” (Ephesians 18a, 19-20, NIV)

Did you see what just happened here? Paul made a connection between the power of God in our life and the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead.

Death is the strongest force in our world. It is the one thing that we can’t control. No matter what type of scientific advances are made, no matter what medical breakthroughs occur, we’re never going to beat death. It is the unconquerable enemy for us.

And yet it proved to be no problem for God. Through the resurrection of Christ, God defeated the undefeatable force. God overpowered the most powerful force in our world.

And in this passage, Paul is telling us that the same power of God that raised Jesus from the dead is available in our lives!

So what problem do you have that is so big that God can’t handle it?

What dream is so huge that it is beyond God’s power?

What vision is so audacious that God can’t deliver it?

The Bible tells us that power of God that brought Jesus back from the dead is available to everyone who believes, and yet many of us are content to live easy, safe, pansy lives. That has to make God sick!

Our God is the Lion of Judah, but we live like he’s a flippin’ housecat! He is the Lion that swallowed up death, but we want to feed Him Meow Mix.

Think about the absolute insanity of this. We believe that God is big enough to save us from the fires of hell, yet we don’t trust Him with our finances. Or our marriage. Or our employment.

We believe that God sent the Holy Spirit to launch the church in an unbelievable display of power, but we don’t trust Him to do big things in our church. He did great things to start the church, but He can’t do great things in our church.

See how crazy this is? But a lot of us live in this craziness every day.

But watch this…God is going to strangle this kind of thinking out of our lives at the end of our passage.

The Bible says that the power of God in our lives is “is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,

far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” (Ephesians 1:19b-21, NIV)

Jesus is above all rule and authority and power. Jesus’ power exceeds anything and everything else…including whatever you’re facing down in your life.

Some of you are living out the theme song for today. You’re walking through life, desperately needing help.

Maybe you’re relying on yourself, which doesn’t work. You’re relying on other people, but they haven’t delivered. You’ve looked everywhere but up. You’ve looked to everyone but your Heavenly Father.

You have the power of God to help you in your life. And I’ll say it again…if you really believe that, every single thing in you life will change.

It doesn’t mean that you’ll never have problems. It doesn’t mean that life will never throw you a curveball. But if you truly believe that the incomparably great power of God is active in your life, it will radically impact how you see the problems and challenges in your life.

Instead of a problem for you to solve, you will see it as an opportunity for God to act. Instead of a mountain for you to climb, you will see it as a mountain for God to move.

When Paul described God’s incomparably great power in verse 19, the Greek word for power he used was dynamis. That’s where we get our word “dynamite.”

You getting the idea? God’s power isn’t poetry. It’s potency. It’s not tentative. It’s explosive. God wants to blow your life up with His power!

We’ve been in Ephesians 1 all morning. Skip ahead a couple of chapters and look at what the Bible says in chapter 3. “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.” (Ephesians 3:20-21, NIV)

So many of us are settling for so much less than God has planned for our lives. Paul says point blank that God’s power is at work within us. He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, but so many of us still allow our lives to be governed by our very small, very weak, very limited perspective instead of the incomparably great power of God.

And maybe the church has something to do with this. We get together as the church every week and we study stories of God’s power from the Bible. And it’s easy to walk away thinking, “Man, God was able to do incredible things back then.”

No. It’s not, “God WAS able to do incredible things.” God IS able to do incredible things. God still does incredible things. And God wants to do far more incredible things in your life, in my life, in our church, and in our world.

In John 14, Jesus said something that used to really bother me. It bothered me because my view of God was way too small. This doesn’t bother me anymore. In fact, I love this!

Jesus said, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.

He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” (John 14:11-13, NIV)

Jesus performed incredible miracles during his life on earth. But Jesus said that we will do even greater things! We will do greater things than Jesus did because He is now with the Father. The power of the Father and the power of the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit unite to empower us to do amazing, incredible things!

But did you see the key? In verse 12, Jesus said, “anyone who has faith in me” will do these incredible things.

So we end where we started today. If you want to live a God-empowered life, you’ve got to live a life of faith. Instead of saying, “I’ve got to see it to believe it,” we need to follow God’s formula. “I’ve got to believe it to see it.”

The incomparably great power of God is waiting to be unleashed in your life. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to you through your faith in Christ.

You don’t have a problem in your life that is too big for God to handle. You’re not facing anything in your life that is too complicated for Him. God doesn’t stress about the things that stress us out. He doesn’t worry when we worry.

There isn’t one thing in your life that God doesn’t care about. And there isn’t one thing in your life that God can’t handle. If God could beat death into submission, then you tell me what He can’t do.

The problem for most of us is that this never moves from theology to reality. We believe in God’s power here at church. We’ll sing about it. We’ll nod our head and say “Amen” in the sermon.

But what about when you’re not here? What about when, instead of Sunday, it’s Tuesday? For most of us, that’s when the wheels fall off.

The power of God is not theology to be studied. It is reality to be lived out.

Some of us who have been Christians for years need to repent today. We need to repent of worshipping a very small, very tame, very predictable, very boring God.

God is crazy about you. You are His child, and He loves you more than His own life. And He wants to blow your life up with His incomparably great power.

But He won’t make a move until you make a decision. That decision is faith. I have never seen God move in my life without first requiring me to act in faith. God has given us the decision to release or restrain His power in our lives. The decision is faith.

One more time from 2 Corinthians. “We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7, NIV)

If I always have to have my every question answered, if everything has to completely make sense, if I have to have every “i” dotted and every “t” crossed before I make a decision, then God is not going to move in my life because I’m living from a position of sight…not a position of faith.

The Bible tells us that, “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1, NIV)

Living in faith means that I don’t have to see it to believe it. Living in faith means that I’m ok if the outcome isn’t guaranteed. I’m ok with living in the realm of the unknown, because I trust the God that I do know more than the things that I don’t know. I trust that His power is greater than any challenge, any problem, or any worry that might cross my path.

We are the church of the living God. Our God is the one who created the heavens and the earth. He is the God that parted the Red Sea, caused a donkey to talk, made the sun stand still, healed every imaginable disease, and ultimately, He is the God who raised His Son from the dead.

That is our God! It’s time to stop living tentative, stressed out, scaredy cat lives and start living like we have the power of Almighty God to help us in our lives…because we do!

Mike Edmisten

Tags: Come Together: A Beatles Series, faith, God's power, Ephesians