Andrew Fountain - Power to Live a New Life

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Power to live a New Life
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Sermon notes - Power to live a New Life

The Problem:

  • We all have the Spirit if we are Christ’s
  • He is supposed to be a new power within us,
  • so why do we so often fail?
  • I’m going to just quickly go through some Scriptures about this power
    • First to show that the Spirit is in all Christians
    • Not to say we are all “filled with the Spirit” —the subject for another day
    • But every Christian is born again by the Spirit who lives in them, as Paul says:

All true Christians have the Spirit

  • Romans 8 (Not the same as being “filled”)
  1. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
  2. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
  3. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
  • Are you convinced?
  • Now we will look at a couple of passages in Ephesians that clearly state that the power of the Spirit is really available to us:

Power is available to us

  • Ephesians starts with power: Eph 1
  1. and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
  2. that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
  3. 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 ends with it: Eph 6
  1. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
  • So it should be pretty clear from these verses that this power is not just theoretically ours but it really is actually available to us.
  • We’ve looked at the beginning of Ephesians, then the end, and now to the middle:

This power is working in us: Eph 3

  1. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
  2. from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
  3. that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
  4. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith...
  5. 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,
  • Do you always feel a new power at work in you?
  • Is there a gap between these words and our experience? (there is for me)
  • Does everyone agree that lack of power is a common problem?
  • We don’t experience victory in our lives over the old way of living.
  • How do we access this power?
    • It’s not about spiritual gifts—the church at Corinth were abounding in gifts, but also abounding in sin.
    • Ideas? (my reasons for asking questions)
  • My suggestion for the answer:

Surrender

  1. Ask God what you should do right now
    for “The wisdom that is from above” Jas 3:17
    • e.g. dishes
    • e.g. say sorry to that person I was rude to
    • You probably know already
  2. Chose to Surrender to him and do it!
    • My will becomes your will -this is what transforms us, and connects us with the Spirit
    • (This is actually faith)
  • Two parts, asking for and receiving the Spirit’s wisdom, and surrendering to it.
  • e.g. I’ll make a confession to you—If I have something stressful to do, I think “I’ll have a quick game of solitaire first (or some other similar thing)”
    • And then I get distracted with something else and the stressful thing gets put off till tomorrow
    • But if I say “God, do you want me to play solitaire right now...” usually I don’t even have to ask, I know the answer
      • So the question comes down to a choice—do I surrender?
  • e.g. do I phone that awkward person
    • This is what you want me to do, so I trust you will give me the power as I step out in it
  • life is made up of 1000’s of little choices.
    • We are on autopilot most of the time, and that’s inevitable, but we should make surrendering our automatic default.

Explanation from Scripture

God’s power in us

  • When we became a Christian, something new was born in us, created anew, e.g. Eph 2
  1. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
  2. not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
  3. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
  • and Eph 4
  1. [you were taught in Jesus] to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God...
  • Something in you knows what Jesus would do in this situation
    • It is the new self, in the likeness of Jesus
    • Used to be very shy, and still have trouble making smalltalk
    • Worst possible thing for me was to talk to a visitor after church
    • I just surrender to Jesus, and actually it’s not nearly as hard as I thought
    • He has prepared all these good things for us to do, and we access them by giving over control to God
  • It says put on the new self. —a different kind of being. (acoustic vs electric guitar)

Some curious verses (all from Paul)

  • For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. [Col 1:29]
  • But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. [1 Cor 15:10]
  • I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [Gal 2:20]
  • But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. [1 Tim 1:16]
  • It seems like this is some alien power that is within us!
  • Actually it is the new us but because it is totally a gift, we don’t even get merit points for it because it’s no credit to us
    • Eph 4:9 said that we can’t boast (previous slide)
  • How do we access this power? —surrendering
    • This word has been misused: not flopping down and doing nothing, but our choice of what to do
  • My problem is that I forget about this new way of living and realize I have been slipping back into the old for a few hours
    • We need to put this way of living into practice until it becomes our second nature
  • Key question: can I trust him? Does he have my best interests at heart?
    • e.g. my map or GPS
    • It feels like a kind of dying
  • Another word for surrender:

Romans 6

  1. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
  2. But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
  3. and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
  4. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to devotion.
  • Presenting yourself as a slave sounds pretty much like surrendering
    • Not a negative connotation, but a totally devoted and loyal servant
  • But it’s not just waking up in the morning and saying “Jesus I present myself to you as a willing servant during this day”
  • Conclusions

Walking in the Spirit

  1. Ask for wisdom from above
    • The Spirit uses the truth already avalible to you
  2. Surrender
    • needs faith!
    • very often looks like love – Gal 5:22–25
  3. Maturity is not “sinning less” but surrendering more
    • growing in faith=growing “down” in dependence
  4. Peace that comes from surrender
    • if you know you are exactly where he wants you to be, why worry. (e.g.stuck in traffic)
  • In my experience, the sticking point is surrender. I use that word because this is what it feels like to me, and many others.
  • There is a power in you that raised Jesus from the dead! Why not lay hold of it?
    • How crazy to have this power and not to lay hold of it
  • Surrender is trust (another word for faith)
    • What it really comes down to is, do you trust Jesus?
  • This message perfectly sums up how to become a Christian
    1. The truth that comes is about Jesus and how he can transform us
    2. Faith is saying “yes” and surrendering to Jesus

Prayer (stretch out your hands):

  • I pray that you may know... what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,
    according to the working of his great might
    that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead
    and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
    • 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.
  • Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
    that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you
    to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
    so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith...
  • 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,
    Amen

Updated on 2017-05-23 by Andrew Fountain