October 18, 1998 - LESSON: Ephesians 3:14-19

SERMON TITLE: The Power of Faith

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INTRODUCTION:

1. I hate Nit-Picking
1. To nit-pick quibble over the sense or the meaning or the significance something
2. To be overly concerned with secondary details.
3. But then it all depends on who is evaluating the details.
4. I do not want to nit-pick this passage
5. I do want to pick it apart.
2. The reason being that there is so much importance and vitality crammed into a few words.
1. Take you bulletin and examine this passage from Ephesians 3:14-20
1. 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
2. 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name.
3. 16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit,
4. 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
5. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
6. 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
7. 20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine,
2. Concentrate on "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."

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MAIN BODY:

1. We are given a measure of Faith
1. (Romans 12:3 NRSV) For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
2. (Romans 12:3 KJV) For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
1. God has given us a measure of faith.
1. What we do with it is vital.
1. Some people ignore it.
2. Some squander it.
3. Some grow it.
2. We ought to be deeply concerned with how to grow a faith that will sustain and keep us.
2. One of the dangers that we face today is that we spend so much time on the negative that we diminish the positive.
1. David G. Myers and Ed Diener in a recent study they called "The Science of Happiness" (The Futurist, 31 [September-October, 1997], 1-7)., reveals this danger.
1. They found that from 1967 to 1995, Psychological Abstracts mentions articles that address
1. anger 5,119 times;
2. anxiety is mentioned 38,459 times,
3. depression 48,366 times.
4. But happiness?
1. Only 1,710 mentions.

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5. Life satisfaction?
1. Only 2,357 mentions.
6. Joy?
1. Only 402 mentions.
7. This amounts to a 21 to 1 ratio of negative to positive emotions studied by our scientists.
2. James Hillman, (Jung successor and Jungian analyst), asks the question,
1. "Why do we focus so intensely on our problems?" and then answers it:
2. "Somehow we desire our problems; we are in love with them as much as we want to get rid of them."
3. Some researchers have asked a huge sampling of the human race --more than a million people--what makes life satisfying.
1. What they have given us are predications of joy and life satisfaction.
2. These authors found five traits that characterize "happy" people.
1. "Positive self-image."
1. What we really ought to call "Self-respect."
1. "The difference between self-esteem and self-respect is night and day. A person with 'high self-esteem' thinks highly of himself. A person growing in self-respect understands that he is an imperfect being who has been given the gift of life in order to serve. A person with high self-esteem thinks he is deserving; therefore, he is ungrateful. A person growing in self-respect thinks he is undeserving; therefore, he is grateful." --John Rosemond, Family counselor, Charlotte, NC, as quoted in The Joyful Noiseletter, November 1998, p. 5.
2. People who are content with life are confident about their abilities, and embracing of their gifts.

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2. "Personal Control."
1. Upbeat people exert control over their lives.
2. In theological language, people who are happier are more self-disciplined than people who aren't.
3. "Optimistic."
1. A positive outlook on life and an openness to others is essential to good mental health.
4. "Extroverted."
1. In their use of this term, the authors are more concerned about the ability to achieve lasting relationships with others than about some personality style.
5. "Faith," faith is the trait that correlated most closely with happiness.
1. Faith does not necessarily mean biblical faith.
2. Faith is so important that without it the other 4 characteristics are, as Jesus said in Matthew 6:30:
1. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you--you of little faith?
2. The first four are dependent on the last.
4. The Power of Faith is demonstrated in the lives of faithful men and women.
1. The book of Hebrews names some people of faith:
1. Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham
2. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses.
3. We could add others:
4. Deborah, Jael, and Rahab.

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2. The Book of Hebrews also reveals what they had to cope with
1. Hebrews 11:32-38, NRSV
1. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets-- [33] who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, [34] quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. [35] Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. [36] Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. [37] They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented-- [38] of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
2. They were people of faith who experienced great hardships.
3. The hardships did not tempt them to abandon the positive.
4. Even though they had not heard the words of Paul, they would have understood what he said:
1. Romans 10:17, ":So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ."
2. They heard and responded to the word of God.
5. There are a few vital statements that can be made about faith.
1. Faith is not a feeling, but a relationship.
2. Faith s not ignorance, but knowledge
3. Faith is not a state of apathy, but the inspiration to action.

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6. Faith reveals the limits of our own strength.
1. Larry King tells this story about baseball great Ty Cobb.
1. When Cobb was 70, a reporter asked him,
1. "What do you think you'd hit if you were playing these days?"
2. Cobb, who was a lifetime .367 hitter, said,
1. "About .290, maybe .300."
3. The reporter said, "That's because of the travel, the night games, the artificial turf and all the new pitches like the slider, right?"
4. "No," said Cobb, "it's because I'm 70."
2. It's important to know our limits.
3. When human limitations are reached we cast ourselves on the resources of God.
1. God gives to each of us a measure of faith.
2. God can help us to grow faith.
4. Someone has said:
1. "The best fortune cookie message I've ever seen:
2. 'God helps those who don't try to take over his work.'

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