POWER FOR MISSION
Pastor Dennis Clanton
Woodland Church
Sunday, July 31, 2022
(Ephesians 1:19–20) “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.”
(1 Corinthians 13:2, Message) “If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.”
God gives me power to share His blessings with others.
(Mark 4:35–41) “As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they took Jesus in the boat and started out, leaving the crowds behind (although other boats followed). But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?” When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”
“That little ship did present a figure of the Church, in that she is disquieted “in the sea,” that is, in the world, “by the waves,” that is, by persecutions and temptations; the Lord, through patience, sleeping as it were, until, roused in their last extremities by the prayers of the saints, He checks the world, and restores tranquility to His own.”
–Tertullian, Latin Christianity: Its Founder, Tertullian, Vol 3, p 675
1. GOD GIVE ME POWER WHEN I OBEY.
(Mark 4:35a) “As evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, …”
“You are disobedient, you are trying to keep some part of your life under your own control. That is what is preventing you from listening to Christ and believing his grace. You cannot hear Christ because you are wilfully disobedient. Somewhere in your heart you are refusing to listen to his call. Your difficulty is your sins.… Only those who obey can believe and only those who believe can obey.”
–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, p 76
2. GOD GIVES ME POWER FOR MY POWERLESSNESS.
(Isaiah 40:29) “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.”
3. GOD GIVES ME POWER TO GO FORWARD.
(Mark 4:35, NLT) “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.”
(Exodus 14:15, ESV) “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.”
4. GOD GIVES ME POWER FOR MISSION.
(John 17:18, Message) “In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world, I give them a mission in the world.”
(Mark 5:2, 15) “When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the tombs to meet him … a crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. He was sitting there fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid.”
A. Missions is about saying to lost people “you matter to God.”
B. Jesus saves him, delivers him, restores him, and sends him.
(Mark 5:20) “The man started off to visit the Ten Towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed at what he told them.”
GROWTHWORK
1. Who has the Lord put into my life to love and introduce Him to?
2. Who is going to heaven because I shared Christ with them?
3. Am I willing for God to use me?
4. Am I supporting Missions through Faith Promise Giving?
5. Am I praying for Missionaries that Woodland supports?