Jeffrey C. Long

This sermon was preached at Filer Mennonite Church on February 26th 2005

My Dad worked for the electric company in Grant County washington from the time of his graduation from Washington State University until his retirement 5 years ago. His first job for them was at Wanapum Dam which is near a town called Mattawa in Washington. Because of his occupation, I grew up visiting many of the hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River.

The most amazing of them all is Grand Coulee Dam. The scope and size of the dam are hard to comprehend. The dam is over a mile long and is taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza. In fact, all the pyramids at Giza could fit within the base of the Grand Coulee Dam. It is more than twice as tall as Niagara falls.

Grand Coulee Dam’s hydroelectric generating facilities include four powerhouses with a total of 24 main generators, three station service generators and six pump/generators. These provide a combined generating capacity of 6480 megawatts. This makes Grand Coulee Dam the largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States and the third largest such facility in the world.

Paul Dawson, a resident of Pendleton Oregon tells the story of when his family visited Grand Coulee Dam.

He says “my family and I were surprised to see that the visitor’s center was dark. It was a sunny day, so we thought the center might have tinted windows, but as we got closer we realized there were no lights on. We went in and saw that none of the displays were working. Suddenly it became clear: there was no power to the center. Due to a technical difficulty of some kind, the visitor’s center that sat only hundreds of feet from a hydroelectric dam had no power.

Citation: Paul Dawson, Pendleton, Oregon

As Christians we can have much the same problem. We live so close to source yet we can often be operating without power.

Today we’re going to learn from Paul how important it is for us to pray that God would reveal to us His power being worked in us today that so we might live and call others to live under His authority.

Ephesians 1:17-23

17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18I 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, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far 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. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

The song Amazing Grace so accurately describes our lives.

Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me

I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.

Because of sin, we suffer from a state of blindness that keeps us from seeing the world as God sees it. We worry about our lives and those around us that we love. When bad things happen, we wonder where God has gone. When good things happen, we forget about God. But there is a completely different world around us that we don’t see. God’s power is working through us, yet we so often fail to see. That is why Paul’s prayer in verse 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;

18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, !19 and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe.

We are blind. We need God to open the eyes of our hearts that we might see the greatness of his power toward us to believe.

There is a great illustration of this in II Kings 6:8-17

II Kings 6: 8 Now the king of Syria was warring against Israel; and he took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp. 9 The man of God sent to the king of Israel, saying, Beware that you not pass such a place; for there the Syrians are coming down. 10 The king of Israel sent to the place which the man of God told him and warned him of; and he saved himself there, not once nor twice. 11 The heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said to them, Won’t you show me which of us is for the king of Israel? 12 One of his servants said, No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedchamber. 13 He said, Go and see where he is, that I may send and get him. It was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan. 14 Therefore sent he there horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and surrounded the city. 15 When the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, a host with horses and chariots was round about the city. His servant said to him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? 16 He answered, Don’t be afraid; for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. 17 Elisha prayed, and said, Yahweh, Please open his eyes, that he may see. Yahweh opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

Our lives are often like that of Elisha’s servant. We are surrounded on every side with the troubles and worries of our lives and we wonder “What should we do?” We need someone to come alongside us and pray like Paul did that our eyes might be opened so that we can see the power of God, horses and chariots of fire round about us.

The onslaught of hurricanes, marching one after the other in the fall of 2004 prompted many people to think more about God. It is safe to say that there were countless prayers for God to temper the might of the storms. Others realized they were seeing the power of God through nature. Kevin Harless, 32, who was sightseeing in Panama City Beach, Florida, was more of a theologian than he may have realized. He said, “You want to see the natural hand of God firsthand, but you don’t realize how strong it is.”

Citation: Lee Eclov, Vernon Hills, Illinois; source: Jay Reeves, “Hurricane Ivan Storms Ashore,” AP (9-16-04)

We cannot comprehend the magnitude of the power of God. It dwarfs the power output of the Grand Coulee Dam. It is more powerful then a dozen hurricanes. It is more powerful then an army surrounding its enemy. And what is so unfathomable is that verse 19 says that this power is toward us who believe. God has chosen to manifest his power towards those who have chosen to follow Him.

He is doing something in us. The power of God is at work in my life.

I want to remind you of a book that I mentioned about a month ago. Watchman Nee wrote a small little book called “Sit, Walk, Stand,” that is a short commentary on the book of Ephesians. I will reference it periodically as we work through the book. I highly recommend it if you’d like to do some study on the side as we go through the book of Ephesians. There is a link to it on my website. It’s only 5 bucks.

On p. 18 he says “Christian experience proceeds as it began, not on the basis of our own work, but always on that of the finished work of another. Every new spiritual experience begins with an acceptance of what God has done. This is a principle of life, and one which God himself has appointed; and from beginning to end, each successive stage of the Christian life follows on the same divinely determined principle.”

Our starting place is not in walking, or in standing. It is in sitting. Sitting under the power of God towards us.

4. Ephesians 1:20

and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,

21 far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion,

and every name that is named, not only in this world,

but also in that which is to come.

22 He put all things in subjection under his feet,

The power of God being worked in us is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. It is the same power that placed Jesus at the right hand of the Father, where He is above all rule, authority, dominion, and every name.

Having been raised from the dead, Christ is now the head of the church, the ultimate authority over the world. Jesus is the Messiah, God’s Anointed One, the One Israel longed for, the One who would set their broken world right. As Christians we can be confident that God has won the final victory and is in control of everything.

We need not fear any dictator or nation or even death or Satan himself. -Life Application Bible

Psalm 110 1 Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,

Until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”

2 Yahweh will send forth the rod of your strength out of Zion.

Rule in the midst of your enemies.

3 Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your power, in holy array.

Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth.

4 Yahweh has sworn, and will not change his mind:

“You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

5 The Lord is at your right hand.

He will crush kings in the day of his wrath.

6 He will judge among the nations.

He will heap up dead bodies.

He will crush the ruler of the whole earth.

7 He will drink of the brook in the way;

Therefore he will lift up his head.

I have two challenges for us this morning.

The first is that we would pray for each other that God would open our eyes to the power that He has toward us.

The second is that we would learn to sit.