Unleashing God's Resources in Our Lives

to go fishing. Some of you, like me, had to do yard work. Amen. Usually, I start my spring work on my lawn in March. And because of weather, and because of other events, and being gone almost every Saturday in the month of March, I have just not had time to even do just some general maintenance on the lawn. And I started thinking about that in context of our sermon today, talking about giving my resources. I started thinking about all the resources I have that sit in my garage. I have a lawnmower. I have a weed eater. I have a edger. I have a lawn blower, leaf blower. I have a leaf picker upper. I have a water sprinkling system. I have fertilizer. I have a fertilizer pushing machine. And I realized something. They don't do any good if they just sit in my garage. My lawn doesn't get any work. Even though I have all those resources in my garage, my yard looked yucky. Why? Because I had not had the opportunity to go out and literally use those resources to make my lawn look better. Now, it still doesn't look great, but it looks better than it did Friday, because I used almost every one of those resources yesterday. I took advantage of the pretty day to take care of going out and working my yard. Now, here's the point. In this room, there are a lot of resources that God wants to use. It doesn't do any good if all we do is just come here and sit on Sunday. I'd need a larger amen on that. God wants to use you and the resources that he's put in this place, in this church, to do kingdom purposes. OK, we're done. Thank you, bud. You've got to go fishing, right? This morning, before we read the passage of scripture, I want us to read what's on the giving my resources. Right underneath that, read it all with me together. I give my resources to fill God's purposes. When I first thought about preaching this sermon, it sounded like another sermon on stewardship and giving money. I'll talk about that a little bit, but that's really not the point of my sermon this morning. I want us to understand how we can unleash the resources that God is giving every one of us, and that God, that we all have in common several resources that God's given each and every one of us in our own life that he wants us to use to fulfill God's purposes. We're going to be in Ephesians chapter 3 in just a moment, but let's pray before we get into the scripture. Father, thank you that we have the privilege and the honor to serve you. And Lord, that you've given resources to each and every one of us to utilize. Father, from the very smallest child to the most senior adult, you want to use us for your glory. May it be so this morning. Father, may we leave this place challenged like we've never been challenged before. May we leave this place knowing that you want to use us. Lord, that you want to use me, and may I surrender to that. Give you praise and honor. In Jesus' name, amen. Follow along with me. We'll be starting in verse 14 of Ephesians chapter 3. It'll be on the screen. It's in your notes. And it's in your Bible, which I prefer you to read more than anything. If you've got your Bible, turn to Ephesians chapter 3, verse 14 through 21. I said in verse 19, but we're going to go all the way through 21. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is called, 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, that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 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, to him be glory in the church, in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Basically, this is a prayer. This is Paul's prayer, a benediction, if you will, a closing prayer to something that he said previously in chapter 3. There's three things that I want us to grab a hold of. Actually, there's the fourth one that I didn't put in your notes this morning, but we'll get there at the end. That there are three common things that we have, resources that God wants us to know that we have. And the first one is that we have the power of the Holy Spirit living within you. Look at verse 16. It says that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. Now in the last three weeks, we've been talking about the Holy Spirit, that he lives inside you. If you are a born-again believer, the Holy Spirit of God lives inside you. Believe that, know that, experience that. Not only that, but once you come to know Christ as your Lord and Savior, that the Holy Spirit gifts you. He gives you gifts. These are different than talents. Talent is something that can be sharpened. Talent is something that can be learned. And some people are more talented than others. But in the end, those who are talented can sharpen those skills. Gifts from the Holy Spirit truly are given from the Holy Spirit to you to be able to accomplish kingdom purposes. If you are a born-again believer, you are gifted with the Holy Spirit. And you have gifts. There's at least 20-something gifts listed in the text in the scripture. We studied 16 of them a couple of weeks ago. Now not only that, though, but because you are gifted, last week we talked about using our time. And we really kind of pursued the idea that since you are gifted, how much time can I give using that gift that God has given each and every one of us, that we are in control of our time, that God wants us to use that time for His glory. Now today, we come to this point that the Holy Spirit of God, I want you to look at that passage of scripture there just a little bit closer, that according to the riches of His glory. I want you to understand something. When we begin to talk about resources, that the riches of His glory really refers to His unlimited resources. Do we really claim the resources that God has ready and willing to give to us that are literally unlimited? Because He is God, and He is sovereign, and He is willing to share His resources with us. Think about this just for a moment. The Apostle Paul, who wrote this passage of scripture, who voiced this prayer as recorded here in Ephesians to the church at Ephesus, when he came to know Christ, before he came to know Christ, he was notorious. He wrecked the lives of many Christians. He was engaged when Stephen was stoned and murdered. He held the coats of everybody. He affirmed that he was just as guilty as if he would have been the one throwing all the stones. He pursued Christians, and he brought them before the Jewish council so that they could be put in jail or condemned or thrown out of the synagogues because he despised those who were followers of the way. Christians knew to stay away from him. And then on that one day on the road to Damascus, God did something in his life, amen? I mean, he was walking down that road. He was struck down. He was made blind. He saw this wonderful light, and that voice of God said through Jesus Christ, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Why do you persecute the church? Why do you persecute believers who are following after me? And he says, who are you? He said, I am the Lord. I am the Jesus Christ. I'm the one that you are persecuting. I'm the one that was put on the cross of Calvary. And from that moment on, Saul began to trust Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of God moved into Saul's life. And Saul then would begin to preach in synagogues. In fact, he went to Ananias. Ananias said, God told me to talk to you. And at that moment, something like scales fell off of his eyes and he was able to see. And from that moment on, Saul, who would later be known as Paul, was a different man. The Holy Spirit of God had done something in his life. People were still afraid of him. In fact, the disciples were afraid to even let him come and speak. You can see all this in Acts chapter nine. They thought it was a trick. They thought that because he was beginning to preach the gospel and he wanted to preach the gospel, that bringing him within the fold would only identify them. And then he would turn tables and turn them in. The Barnabas, the encourager, said, no, this is the real deal. There's something different about Saul, now known as Paul. He has got the power of the Holy Spirit. He is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and lives are being changed. That's what happens when we experience the power of the Holy Spirit. Unlimited resources, the riches of his glory are available to us. And then you look at what happens. He strengthens us with power through the Holy Spirit. These are almost the same words. They're not the same words in the Greek, if you go and look. But they talk about the word strength could be mighty. You are made mighty. You are made strong with power. Dunamis, dynamite power. You are made strong with power. I don't know about you, but when I was a junior in high school, I was doing everything I could to be a good senior the next year football player. And so in spring training, I was accomplishing things that I had never accomplished before. And back then, for me, this was a lot. I bench pressed over 200 pounds for the first time my junior year. I was pumped. I deadlifted 425 pounds. For me, and back in the 70s, that was a pretty good feat for me. And there was guys that were stronger that could do more. But I was proud of myself. I was getting strong. I was exhibiting some outward strength that says, and I was running faster than I'd ever ran in my life. So I said, I'm gonna be a good senior football player. The very next day that I lifted more weight than I'd ever lifted in my life, I dislocated my shoulder. I eventually had surgery that summer, was released to play football the week before we played our first game. But you know what happened? I lost all that strength. I probably couldn't even bench press to 100 pounds after my surgery. It took six weeks all wrapped up back in those days. And then I just couldn't get it back in shape. I lost that strength. Let me tell you something. When you have the riches of God's glory in your life, life and you have the power, the dynamite power, the power of the Holy Spirit living inside you, that strength is not an external thing. That strength that God offers us is internal. It is a resource that we need to claim. It is a resource that we need to have in our lives. And I think that as Christians, as believers, we too often fail to secure that resource and to use that strength. We try to do things on the external. We try to do things on our own. You got it? You understand it? You know that. We think we can do it ourselves, but we need to turn to the power of the Holy Spirit and call upon that power to give us the strength to sustain life, to work through life, to work through every circumstance that we may have in our life. When life is going tough, maybe to work through all the addictions that we might have in our life, if we will claim the power of the Holy Spirit, He will give us strength to overcome those addictions. I believe that with all my heart. But how often do we fail? Because I don't want to go to the Holy Spirit. I want to kind of wallow in my sin. I'm having too much fun. And when that happens, we lose our spiritual strength. Claim the power of the Holy Spirit. It is a resource that is within every believer that God wants us to exercise. Second thing is, not only do we have the power of the Holy Spirit that is ready to be unleashed, we have the love of Christ. The love of Christ is better than any academia or any program that we might have. Look at verse 17 through 19. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in, say that word with me, love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. When we're talking about giving our resources, what did Jesus give for us? Gave his life. He gave everything, amen. He gave everything. Ought we ought also to give everything? Did we not give our very lives to serve him for kingdom purposes? Why would God do that? Because God so loved the world that he gave his only son. Love becomes the motivation. Love becomes the drive. And with those who are born again believers, who have the power of the Holy Spirit, we have experienced the love of God because the love of God has come into our hearts. So you see, giving these temporary resources that we have in this world should be very easy for us to give our money, our time, our energy, our gifts, our talents, should be a piece of cake when compared to what Jesus Christ gave to us on the cross. You better say amen. We give our resources because God loved us so much. We said it in our Sunday school class this morning. It really is a heart issue, is it not? It's a heart issue. Proverbs 23, six through eight says, don't eat with people who are stingy. Don't desire their delicacies. They're always thinking about how much it costs. Eat and drink, they say, but they don't mean it. In other words, one of the translations says their heart's not in it or their heart's not with you. You'll throw up what little you've eaten and your compliments will be wasted. The point of that passage of scripture is that there are people, they'll tell you, yeah, eat whatever you want, but they're sitting there watching or they'll say, take whatever you want, but they're sitting there watching and really their heart's saying, oh no, you can't have that much. They really are stingy according to what the Proverbs, what Solomon wrote there in that passage of scripture. It becomes a heart and what you embrace with your heart will determine the kind of person you will become. It will determine the kind of activities that you participate in. When I was the pastor at First Southern Baptist Church and liberal, I would go to meetings in Topeka or Salina or somewhere and somebody would always say, yeah, this is Keith Bryant. He is that liberal pastor at First Southern Baptist Church. Now I used to complain about that, oh no, no, I'm one of the most conservative pastors you will ever, ever meet. But then I learned to have a different response and say, yes, I am that liberal Southern Baptist pastor in Kansas. And here's why. Do you know why liberal got its name? There was a farmer that had a well out there and for miles there was not water anywhere else to be got. And when people would come through in their wagons and in their transferring over to different parts of the country, they would stop by that well and that farmer would give them as much water as they want and they would say, that is mighty liberal of you, liberality. We have turned that term around in our world today. But from the Christian perspective, are we not supposed to give liberally? Are we not supposed to give from our heart with all that we have and all that we are? Of course we are. Why? Because Jesus loved us enough to give his everything, we ought also to give our everything. Jesus said it like this, he says, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So let me warn you, you can tune out now, this is the money part of the sermon, okay? You can't serve God and serve money too. The point is that Jesus says that what we do in this life with our resources should have kingdom impact. It should change the world. And there are two kinds of people sitting in this room this morning. Some of you are savers, you save money, that's all you do is save money, right? Some of you are spenders, right? We got savers, we got spenders in this room. Now neither one of them is necessarily bad. I like to do both. But it's when we go to extremes that they can become bad in our lives. Savers can become misers. Spenders can become materialists. Where are you at? Now we must turn these things to God and align our hearts with what God wants us to do with our resources, with our money. Are we making kingdom impact? Are we laying up treasures in heaven with our resources? Truth of it is misers, what they really want is security so that in the end they can have all the money they need to exist, which is never enough, right? Spenders, they desire status. Look at me. Look at all of my possessions that I have. But I am a grand old person. Through our study, I have said this over and over again, but listen carefully to what I'm about to say. When we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, He's the one that provides the security. In fact, it is eternal security. It is perseverance of the saints. It is once saved, always saved. When I come to know Jesus, I am guaranteed eternal life with Jesus Christ. And our identity in Christ, therefore, determines our status. Oh, I like that. When I know that I live in Christ, I am His and that is all that matters. No one can serve two masters. Either you're a child of God or you're a child of money. If we believe that all we have is God's, we'll be free to give for kingdom purposes. We have a choice to make. Third point, only can we have the power of God that really can be unleashed through the power of the Holy Spirit. We can be strengthened. We can share that. We can share our gifts. We can share the love of Christ who died on the cross of Calvary for us. And we can give because He gave everything. We can give freely. We can give liberally because it's in our hearts. But then the next resource we have is an effective prayer life. Look at verse 14. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father. And then we'll read verse 20 and 21 in just a moment. For what reason? For what reason was Paul praying? If you go back and read all of chapter 3, and back to chapter 2, actually, he says, For by grace are you saved through faith. He mentions a couple of times in the previous verses, grace for grace. For God changed my life when I was on that road to Damascus. Prior to that, I was on a road straight to an eternity separated from God. But now my life has been changed. And now I bow on my knees before a holy God, and I give Him thanks. And then he closes. I memorized verse 20 in another translation. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever think or imagine according to His power that is at work within us. Folks, I want you to hear me about what I'm fixing to say because this goes to next week's sermon and next week's event as we're going to enter into a time of 21 days of prayer. We're going to ask you to join with us in prayer. We're going to be asking some of you to think about fasting. But before I talk about those things, listen to me, folks. If the church, who is full of the power of the Holy Spirit, who knows the love of Christ, will be effective in its prayer life, God can do immeasurably more than we could ever think or could imagine. How effective is your prayer life right now? Are you claiming the unlimited resources that God has available to us through prayer? I want to share with you a couple of documents that we will be giving to you next week. We'll be asking some of you, and you don't have to commit to fasting. Some of you won't be able to fast because of health issues. We understand that. But there's several kinds of fast. We have one of these for about every family. We only ordered about 50 of them. They're a little bit pricey. But in this little book, there'll be an avenue for you to understand what is fasting, why we fast. And let me just share with you right off the bat. I don't want to even tell you what I'm going to do, although I've shared that before. Here's why. This is a personal decision that we're going to be asking you to do. We're not going to have you come up front and say, Well, this is the kind of fast I'm going to do. That'd be just like the hypocrites that prayed with their faces all, And Jesus said, You hypocrite. You're not really praying. You're just faking it. I don't want this to be a time to come up and say, Look at me. I fasted for 21 days. Nor is it a time to lose weight. That's not why we fast. We fast from those things that are preventing us from having a whole perfect unity with God in our prayer life. And I'll be honest with you. How many of you watch the Food Channel? How many of you watch HGTV? Our culture is saturated with materialism and with food and all those kind of things. And maybe we just need to fast from those kind of things. They're not bad in themselves. But they're addictive. I've shared with you that I like to watch Fixer Upper. I got them all saved. I want to go and watch them. I'll be careful. I'll have hours upon hours upon hours that I could be spending time praying. There is a Daniel Fast. A Daniel Fast is a time to just purify your body with whole good things. There'll be a sheet of paper that will tell you what a Daniel Fast is. Be looking at our website. I already have this under the announcements in our website. If you want to know what a Daniel Fast is here, here are the kind of foods you can eat and drink, basically just water. And I tell you folks, I love coffee. But I'll give it up if I need to. I have for months when I was working on my voice. And I did miss it. But it's not important. If coffee stands in the way between me and having a good, clean relationship with my God, I don't mind giving up coffee for 21 days. Notice I said 21 days. Also notice that we started the media fast after the final four is over with. But I'm going to miss the Masters. And I love watching the Masters every year because it's one of my favorite events to watch. I may record it. But anyway, those kind of things, you see what I'm saying, the struggles we have? Those kind of things, they take up time. And if I'm serious about giving my time and offering my time to God, prayer should be one of those things, a resource that God gives us, that we ought to be spending time in prayer, asking God to help us. You'll also get a 21-day prayer guide. We'll give you things that we want you to pray about and to pray for and to pray with, that God would help you through those things, some ideas. And certainly not all-inclusive. This is not all that you need to pray for. But I will be asking you next week to fill out a little form. It's very simple. And again, this is personal. No one's going to see this except for the prayer team and me so that we can pray for you while you're going through your 21 days of fasting or prayer. And I'm asking you to commit. I will commit the next 21 days to do the following. Either fast, pray, pray and fast. Some of you may just commit 21 days to praying. Some of you may fast a full fast, a Daniel fast, or a media fast. There's all kinds of descriptions. But we want you to do what God is calling you to do. Why? Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more. As your pastor search team begins its work.