Ephesians 3:14-21
When Mike Kollin was a linebacker for the Miami Dolphins, he got a call from his old coach, from Auburn University, Shug Jordan. Coach Jordan wanted Mike to do some recruiting for him. Mike said, “Sure coach. What kind of player are you looking for?”
The coach said, “Well Mike, you know there’s that kind of fellow that when you knock him down, he just stays down?” Mike said, “We don’t’ want him, do we, coach?”
“That’s right, Mike. We don’t want him. Then, you know, there’s that fellow, you knock him down and he gets up, but you knock him down again and he stays down.”
Mike answered, “We don’t want him either, do we coach?”
Coach said, “No, we don’t want him either. But Mike there’s a fellow, you knock him down, he gets up. Knock him down, he gets up. Knock him down, he gets up. Knock Him down, he gets up.”
Mike said, “Now that’s the guy we want, isn’t it coach?”
And the coach answered, “No, we don’t want him either. I want you to go and find the guy who’s knocking everyone down. That’s the guy we want!”
Now I don’t tell you this football story only to remind you that the teams are beginning training camp this week…although it is that time of year. Football season will soon be upon us…
No, I tell this story because it is about strength and power. And that’s what I want us to think about for awhile this morning. Strength and power. This little passage in Ephesians is about strength and power. It’s a prayer…that the readers will be strengthened. That they’ll be strengthened with power through God’s spirit. That they will have power to comprehend the full greatness of God. And that God’s power will be at work in them. This is a passage about the power and the awesome of God.
This is our third week of looking at Ephesians. Two weeks ago, we thought about adoption and talked about the grace of God that reaches out to us and adopts us into God’s family.
Last week, we considered that God desires unity in the church and in the world. The brokenness and divisions and walls all go against God’s vision for one humanity…one family across the world.
Now today, I want you to look at the last part of the prayer, verse 20, that goes like this: “Now to him who by the power (there’s that word) at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine…to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
There’s a lot packed into that little sentence. Let’s look at three truths that are there.
First of all, very simply, God’s power is available to you and me. That power comes to us as we root our lives in the love of God. That is verse 16 and 17 of the prayer. He prays that we will be strengthened in the inner being with power through his spirit…and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
As you and I are rooted and grounded in God’s love, we receive access to inner strength and spiritual power. God’s power is available to you and me.
I like the concept that being rooted in God is our source of his power. Just as a plant draws its nourishment and strength as it sinks its roots deep into the soil, so do we receive God’s power as we root our lives in him.
I planted some grass over at the parsonage lawn back in the spring. There are some sizable portions of the lawn where no grass is growing. It is just dirt. So, I scattered the seed and began to water it. And I was pretty pleased with the results. The grass began to come up. It covered most of the bare places and actually looked pretty good. I would come home in the afternoon and get out of the car and just stand there and look at that grass and admire it and pat myself on the back for making the yard so much more attractive.
Unfortunately, that grass didn’t put down much of a root system. Last month our family went out of town for a couple of days and while we were away this area had record amounts of rainfall. You remember the flooding and the leaky basements and the falling trees…well…when we came back in town, my beautiful grass was…gone. It was gone…nothing. Just dirt. You couldn’t even tell I had ever planted anything there. The ten or fifteen inches of rain we had that week had simply washed my grass away never to be seen again. I guess it wasn’t rooted…it wasn’t grounded…and it didn’t have the power and didn’t have the strength to stand up to the flooding…
Rooted and grounded…our power…God’s power in our lives…comes to us as we are rooted and grounded in him. God’s power IS available to us.
The second point to take away here is that God’s power works in us and through us. “Now to him who by the power at work within us…” God’s power isn’t just available to us. It is there to work in us and through us. You and I are the conduit, the container, the vessels for God’s power to be at work in the world. That power works within us.
Out in Kansas, a farmer by the name of Frank Polifka, has invented a contraption he calls a cyclone machine. Basically, it’s a tornado in a can. Out back of his house, he’s built a big 8 foot tall corrugated shed for what is officially termed Vortex Dehydration Technology. A cyclone machine. A homemade twister. When Frank Polifka opens the valve that turns on his machine, superheated compressed air whirls around that steel shed producing a vortex of hot powerful wind…wind that is so powerful that it actually pulverizes solid rock into dust and grinds concrete into powder.
The possibilities for this powerful “tornado in a can” technology are unlimited and have just begun to be explored. Maybe trash and waste can be run through this powerful device and come out as dry fertilizer power. An Australian company is looking at ways to dry out their huge stores of underground coal as a possible alternative to fuel oil. Some of the experiments have involved putting all kinds of things into the vortex: rocks, dirty diapers, household garbage, barrels of eggshells, tomatoes, soda pop cans, glass bottles, 400 pounds of Oreo cookies, frozen pizza dough. ..all were reduced to a fine powder that could be reconstituted with water, spread on fields, or used in a thousand other ways.
I don’t know that will ultimately become of the invention. It’s in its earliest stages. But the concept of that kind of power being unleashed within a corrugated metal vessel is what impresses me most about the invention. Imagine the power of a twister created and contained inside a corrugated can. Now imagine the power of God…instilled, unleashed, alive within you and me. God’s power in us…a power that is great and awesome…available to us…at work within us.
In this example, God is the tornado. You and I are the can, the vessel where that power is doing its thing.
God’s power is available to us as we are rooted and grounded in him.
God’s power is at work within us…a power that is awe inspiring and mighty.
Finally, that power of God, working in you and me, can accomplish more than we can ever ask or imagine. God’s power is beyond what you or I can dream of or conceive.
That’s what we saw in the reading from John this morning. Those disciples know that the crowds around them are hungry. They’ve been listening to Jesus for hours and they are ready to eat. But there’s not much food available to them. Only five loaves and two fish.
The disciples can’t conceive of a solution. But Jesus knows the power of God. Power that can do more abundantly than the disciples can ask for or imagine. Jesus took the loaves and fish and simply began to distribute them to the people. And when everyone…over 5,000 people, had eaten Jesus said “Go gather up the leftovers.” And the disciples came back with 12 baskets of leftover fish and loaves.
God’s power is generous and amazing. God’s power does more than those disciples or you or me could ever imagine or ask or dream. And that power is available to you and me. It works in you and me. It works its amazing wonders through you and me.
I thought of that power working through you and me last Wednesday night when the Voices of Youth were here at our church. The church was packed. If you were here you received a blessing. It was a wonderful and tremendous evening.
Those youth had just come to us after two weeks in Africa where they saw firsthand some of the mission efforts of The United Methodist Church. Probably the most impressive mission they saw was Africa University. That school was established by United Methodists some 20 years ago to educate people from across the African continent. Money you and I give through our weekly offering got the school off the ground and has sustained its ministry. Thousands of Africans today are engineers, teachers, doctors, musicians, and ministers because of the work of Africa University. God’s power…working in and through you and me…doing more than we could ever dream of or imagine.
The thing that impressed me most at that Voices of Youth concert was this photograph. Kip Robinson, one of the adult leaders, gave it to me after the service on Wednesday. If you look closely, you can see the four young women from our church…Abbey, Jackie, Megan, and Rebecca. They are holding onto a long handle that is part of a well going deep into the ground.
The well is one that this congregation funded through your Lenten offerings some years ago in Tinga Tinga, Mozambique. I’ll bet that when you gave that money back then, you never would have dreamed that four of your teenagers would actually get to go and see and pump from and drink from the Annandale Well. Yet here it is…your well. Because of your well, children have fresh, clean water to drink right there in their village. Because of your well, there is water for cooking and cleaning. Women and children don’t have to walk four miles each day so they, half of that with splashing jugs balanced on their heads, so that they can have one of the basic necessities of life. Water. We turn on the faucet and there it is. Those brothers and sisters used to have to plan their day around going to get just a little bit. But there it is, the Annandale well. With your girls trying it out. Thousands of drinks, baths, meals, and loads of laundry have happened because of the Annandale Well.
By the power at work within us, he is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine….more than you can imagine. A simple well. God’s power has worked through you to give life through this well.
One of today’s most respected preachers is Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor. She points out the power of God as she tells of a response she received one time to a sermon…"Who knows what it was about. All I remember is the man who came out afterwards, a sensible, well heeled fellow looking slightly stunned, who told me that God had spoken to him during the sermon that morning. He was going to quit his job on Monday. He was gong to sell his car. He was going to change his life, he said, to which I said, ‘Good grief! It was only a sermon! Sleep on it! Go get a cup of coffee! See how you feel in the morning.”
“Because we are old friends with the Word by now, we have forgotten its power. We read scripture out loud as if we are reading income tax instructions to each other. There is nothing to get excited about. You can buy dish towels with the Beatitudes printed on them. You can give Bibles to your children without worrying that what they read there will upset their lives.”
She ends by saying, “The word that created heaven and earth, the word that became flesh and dwelt among us, the word that blew through an upper room and set believers’ heads on fire—that word is still loose in a world that cannot contain it, still seeking those who will hear it and speak it-waking sleepers, freeing the prisoners, raising the dead. ‘Let it be…” God said, and it shall be so. Amen.”
God’s power is available to you and me…as we are rooted and grounded in his love.
God’s power works within us with the force of a mighty wind.
God’s power working in us can accomplish far more that you or I can ever ask or dream or imagine…
Let God’s power take hold of you…
Let God’s power get our church in its grip…
and we might be surprised what’ll happen.