Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
Part IV Power and Love of God
What happens when God's unlimited power meets His unfathomable love? This compelling exploration of the fourth part of "God's benefit package" takes us deeper than surface-level blessings into the transformative core of the Christian experience.
At the heart of this message lies a profound truth many believers miss: while we often approach God focused on what we can receive, the pathway to experiencing His greatest power comes through giving and serving others with a genuinely loving heart. This paradox—that giving opens the door to receiving "pressed down, shaken together and running over"—represents the revolutionary nature of God's kingdom.
Drawing from Paul's powerful prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21, we discover that the apostle wasn't primarily asking for supernatural abilities or circumstantial changes. Instead, he prayed for believers to be "strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner being" for a specific purpose: that we might comprehend the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ's love. This progression—from inner strengthening to Christ dwelling in our hearts to being rooted in love to knowing His love that surpasses knowledge—culminates in being "filled with all the fullness of God."
The message examines how this divine love breaks down barriers, creating unity where division once existed—as demonstrated when Jews and Gentiles became one new body in Christ. In our world defined by countless divisions, this unifying power remains revolutionary. Our heart attitudes determine how effectively we experience God's power and love, with hardened hearts blocking what God wants to do within us.
Using Peter's water-walking experience as a powerful metaphor, we see that breakthroughs come not from focusing on our problems or even the solutions we seek, but on maintaining unwavering focus on Christ himself. When Peter kept his eyes on Jesus, he did the impossible; when he looked at the waves, he began to sink.
Whatever challenges you're facing today, remember this life-changing truth: it's not about the healing but the Healer, not the provision but the Provider. Keep your eyes on the prize—Jesus Christ—and watch as His power and love transform you from the inside out.
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
We now move on to part four of God's benefit package. Now you could probably say that I could talk about this indefinitely, all the way from Genesis to Revelation, but that's not the point that I'm trying to make here. What I'm trying to do is give you an understanding that, as you go through the scriptures, there are so many things that benefit us from having Christ dwelling within us, that benefit us from having Christ dwelling within us. And when I say that it's not a matter of just looking at all the blessings and all the curses and all the promises that God has made, it's understanding that with this there's God's power and his love work hand in hand. Now our Heavenly Father is all-powerful and loving, wanting to give good gifts to his children, and we are all children of God. Throughout the Old Testament, god highlights his immense strength to act and his profound, unconditional affection for humanity, both expressed through the gift of Jesus Christ and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. And the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, this divine love, is a transformative force that frees people from fear and empowers them to overcome challenges, and calls them to a life of compassion, of compassion, forgiveness and service to others, ultimately transforming them into the likeness of Christ. Now, if you notice the last bit that I just said there, it's our service to others.
Speaker 1:See, a lot of people may how do I put this deadly. I don't want anybody to get the wrong impression here, but most christians, most of the time, are having a relationship with our heavenly father to see what we can get out of god. But by knowing that if we give to others, serve others, help others, support the faith of the church, support the ministry, by giving ourselves over to others, then that itself is us serving Christ. Now, we taught both of our kids this from a very young age. If there was something they wanted, you know, like mainly, I mean like when they're having difficulty getting a job or getting something or getting something that they need or desire for them to actually move forward with their life by serving the house, giving freely to the kingdom of God, that opens up a doorway and the path to our Heavenly Father is made so much easier because it says if you give, it will be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together and running over. But that is not the entire motive behind that. You've got to do it with a loving, open heart, and this is what christ does with us. See, the reality is that there is only one person who was without sin, and that is jesus.
Speaker 1:Every time I take communion, I am reminded of this and even though we can't become him, we can, however, try to be more Christ-like each and every day, and you'll probably hear me say this hundreds of times throughout my sermons if you listen to them, all of my podcasts. It doesn't matter whether I'm speaking live in a church environment or before a men's ministry or something like that. I'm always saying the same thing, and that lets people know that where I am in my journey with Christ in comparison to some others. And I was having a discussion very similar to this this morning about a family matter, but that's irrelevant. Okay, moving on now, I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1:King david, with all of his failings, was a man after god's own heart. You see this in 1 samuel 13 and 14 and Acts 13, 22, both referring to King David. In 1 Samuel, god stated that he will seek a man after his own heart, because King Saul's kingdom was how should we say? Well, it wasn't going to endure. You know Saul had lost favor with God, and Samuel talks about this Whilst in Acts 13,. He quotes this statement saying David is a man after God's own heart who will do his will. While David's Psalms are known for their devotion, this phrase in particular emphasises obedience to God's command and to a heart aligned with the divine desires.
Speaker 1:But today I don't want to focus on that. I've spoken about David and Saul quite a bit before. It's so, so easy to get stuck with a particular scripture and to all of a sudden just go down a totally different rabbit hole, and when we do that we're getting a bit off track of what God's told me to bring forth at this particular time, forth at this particular time. Always, without a shadow of a doubt. I want to try and remain in God's perfect will. We can't always do that because we naturally get off on our own tangents, and that doesn't mean just biblically, but in the natural as well. But today I want to look at Ephesians 3.14 through to 21. We can always focus on David at another time and for those that are interested, at the moment on Netflix and also on Prime, they've got the story of David right up until when he killed Goliath and everything. So if you want to take a shortcut, you can watch that. You have to do your own research. Okay.
Speaker 1:Now Paul is talking about power, and this is what I want to focus on today. Paul is talking about the power, and this is the main focus of him when he's speaking to the athensians, but it's not the kind of power that we think about. It's a different power, one that has the ability to shock us and the world around us. If we look back in athians 1, where Paul has prayed that we would know who Christ is and that we would know who power that's 119. But in verse 19, paul wrote that we would know that what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his great might, of his great might? In this single verse, paul uses three different words for power, and that's how important this is to Paul and how much it means for us. Paul wants us to understand and, more than that, he believes without a doubt in God's absolute power, the power that he used to raise Jesus from the dead, the power to bring him to heaven. And what's almost even better is the fact that his power is available to you and me today.
Speaker 1:Some might say, yeah, I've heard all this before, so where is it? Where is that power that the Lord has for us? I think that when people actually focus on one particular thing and they are trying to, how am I going to put this? If they're focusing on one particular thing they forget to focus on what the importance of a particular thing is. See, jesus stands in the gap for us, but more than that, he left his Holy Spirit to dwell within us. I just want to read these verses to you, and then I want you yourself to think about it and see if you're discovering which is changing the way that I pray and the way that you would pray, the way that I pray and the way that you would pray.
Speaker 1:Paul just wrote these words in Ephesians 14 to 19. This is what it says. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend all, with all the saints. That is what is breadth and the length, and the height and the depth and know now the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God. See, paul starts out in this section stating for this reason I bow my knee before the Father. So what is Paul's reason for bowing his knees? The reason for Paul's prayer, for Paul humbling himself by bowing down before God, is about what I spoke about many times in relation to healing. It was the fact that roadblocks that we have to be aware of that are tearing us down. The Gentiles and the Jews were coming together as one new body because their faith in Jesus Christ. This is essential, for the church was becoming a new creation because of these two people coming together in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1:And we live in an antagonistic world. Our world, our world, is often defined according to divisions. We had the Hatfields and the McCoys. A lot of people won't know who they were, the old hillbillies many, many years ago, that for many, many years they were at war with each other, the two families, and after about 100 years I think everybody forgot what the fight was all about. My wife's got twin sisters. I call them the Hatfields and the McCoys, but I digress Now. We had the Hatfields and we have the McCoys. We have upper class and lower class, and in politics, we have Democrats, we have liberals, we have Labor and let's not forget the Greens or the independents. Society has their rich, their poor, their black, their white, and so on. The divisions exist and it is usually very disastrous. My wife, in particular, is one of these people that sort of hates the fact that there are different classes.
Speaker 1:A real classic way of explaining this is possibly if we look at the Titanic. Now, if anybody's actually not just watched the movie but understood the true nature of what happened with the Titanic and why so many people perished, it was because the upper class didn't want to mix with the lower class. And instead of cramming as many people as you possibly can into one lifeboat, you might find that there is one family in a lifeboat that has the potential to carry 40 people, and there's only like three people and they've taken all their personal luggage and all their money with them. That's just out there on Pluto. But the point that I'm trying to make is that throughout history, the world has looked at different classes of people and categorized them in their own way so that they can actually account for things.
Speaker 1:But this now, okay, is what Paul is talking about how, bringing two groups of people together. See, there used to be the Jews and the Gentiles right and the Gentiles right. And then, when Jesus came along, okay, people were filled with the Holy Spirit and they become born-again Christians. So then you had the Jews, you had the Christians and you had the Gentiles. Now, god didn't want that segregation, he wanted us all to be united as one. So, because of this, the unity in this new organism called the church, paul celebrated this for the reason he takes the posture of humility, humbling himself before God, bowing down, getting on his knees and saying thank you, god, for these two groups coming together and becoming one.
Speaker 1:You see, this section of scripture is all about power. It's really about a superpower more than anything else. It's not what we see in Superman, wonder Woman, batman, aquaman or Black Panther Depends on your comic trilogy or whatever you're going into. And it's not about, you know, like Darth Vader versus Obi-Wan, kenobi and Yoda, and good side and the dark side. No, let me remind you of what Paul is praying for, because too often we breeze through what Paul is writing, but I believe this has major implications for our lives.
Speaker 1:Now listen again to Paul's words in Ephesians 3. I don't normally do this, but for a particular reason, I am making sure that you're all aware of exactly the true essence of this, because we're talking about God's power and his love. As he prayed that God would grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in 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. It is a powerful passage of Scripture. So do you see what Paul is praying for? I just want to unpack this for a little bit, just so you really sort of like get that rhema knowledge inside you. That's when you know the Holy Spirit actually reveals something about a Scripture. That's when the Holy Spirit actually reveals something about a scripture.
Speaker 1:I've found time and time again that I can read the same scripture 10 times and on the 11th time when I go to read that passage of scripture, I go OMG, you get that revelation knowledge. You get that revelation, knowledge, and you see what the author of that passage is really saying about the true essence of God. You don't always get this and sometimes we as humans are a little slow on the uptake me more so than some others but this passage is about the power of the Holy Spirit and the power we received from the Spirit that dwells within us. Usually, when we think of Spirit's power or when we pray to God for power about something, we ask God to strengthen us, to give us the power to do whatever the power to change or help a person change, or the power to bring healing or to change a person and these are all very, very good prayers, because that's what we need to do. We need to focus. Sometimes I get there and I say I asked the Lord, did you come and visit this person in the still night hours and let them know that you are real? So you're wanting that person that you're praying for to have the Holy Spirit reveal something to them through the power of our Lord and Saviour.
Speaker 1:But Paul is taking this a little bit further. He's talking about something totally different. He's talking about the Holy Spirit, the inner power for us, a strength that he gives us, so that we can know and understand the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge, and that we could be filled with all the fullness of God. So the goal is to know the power of God's love and to be filled with all the fullness of God. And who doesn't want to experience the power of love and to be filled? Who doesn't want that? We all want that. Paul gives us a progression. As he prays before God, he bows in humility before God. Why? So that Christ might dwell in your hearts. He's praying for us. Why so that you might be rooted and grounded in love. And why that? So that you can know the love of Christ. And why do you need to know the love of Christ? So, when all said and done, you're a mature, complete Christ follower, filled with the fullness of God.
Speaker 1:You know, as a pastor, I admit complete Christ follower, filled with the fullness of God. You know, as a pastor, I admit what goes through my heart and mind. Sometimes and I'm opening myself up here, seriously I am and being more vulnerable than usual, I wonder why somebody doesn't serve more. Why don't they give more? Why don't they just attend more often? Why they need to I don't know buy more stuff? Why are they so miserable? Why can't they forgive? Why can't they, why, why, why? Sometimes that fuels my mind all the time, but I can't answer these questions. See, that drives me crazy to a certain degree, but my comfort, in a backward kind of way, is that everything, ultimately, is a hard issue.
Speaker 1:This is what Paul's really getting at when he prayed that we may have strength to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the depth and the length and the height and the breadth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. You see, the thing is it's all about our heart. What I'm saying is that if we don't have the right heart attitude, we can find something in our life that will harden our heart and not leave us open. Now it could be a loss of a loved one. It could be seeing someone in your family going into drugs or alcohol abuse, or even someone who just abuses women or beats women up, or someone who treats children the wrong way. There are so many things where, in order for us to know God's power and his love, we need to have it shed abroad in our heart.
Speaker 1:To start with, paul is trying to make sure that his prayer is for us. They say there's unity in the body of Christ, and what is meant by that is that when you have unity, that means everybody coming together on the same page, the same plan, the same purpose. We're lining up with God's plan and purpose for our life and God's plan and purpose for the church. But in saying that, it starts with us, what is our heart attitude? Why are we not praying more for other people, for other people to be healed, for other people to be set free, for other people to get that revelation knowledge from God, for other people to get that revelation knowledge from God? Because sometimes the onus is on us praying about things for ourselves, because we ourselves are going through troubling and difficult times.
Speaker 1:Now I'm not just saying this for the sake of saying this, but I want all of you people out there that are listening that are going through challenges in their life right now. Now I don't know what your challenge is, but I can almost guarantee that I would say at least 80 to 90% of all the people listening to this podcast right now have something going on in their life or in their family environment or their work environment, or whether they're at university or school, you will be coming up against a challenge of some kind. I pray that the love of God is shed abroad in your heart so that you're able to overcome the trials and the tribulations that are before you now, the trials and the tribulations that are before you now, and I also pray that you are reminded that God loves you more than anything else in the world and he wants you healthy, happy, whole, and he wants you to have a relationship with him. And he wants you to have a relationship with him. And I know that some people will say, oh yeah, but that doesn't pertain to me. I've got everything all in line and I'm good with God and God's good with me. Yes, that is true, and I'm not speaking this over your life, but everything is temporal, subject to change.
Speaker 1:It says in the word of God that we will have trials and tribulations. It says that we will go through the valley of shadow of death. But we know that. We know that. We know that God is with us. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He is always there, watching over you, guiding you and showing you the right path, and I pray that you see the right path and you take the right path. And the right path may not be a smooth journey, but it's not the journey, it's the destination. Just remember that. It's not the journey, it's the destination. We've got to know where we are going and where we intend to arrive, because the journey is sometimes long and arduous and it's not the right path that we believe that we are meant to have.
Speaker 1:But keep your eyes on the prize. All right, I often quote this about Pastor Rob Scott. He wrote this song with his wife and it's called Believe in the Healer, song with his wife and it's called Believe in the Healer. But the main focus of the song is to keep your eyes on the healer, not on the healing. So don't look at what is happening in your life right now. Don't focus your life on your circumstances. Keep your eyes on the prize. Keep your eyes on the prize. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Focus on him.
Speaker 1:We all know about the story about Peter and the boat. He said come. When he saw Jesus, he said come to me, as long as he kept his eyes focused on the Lord. A lot of people don't take this to its fullest perspective. Everybody says, oh yeah, well, he started to drown and Jesus had to pull him up and save him. You forget the actual, pivotal aspect of it. He walked on water, the same as Jesus Christ did, because when he had his eyes on Jesus, he was able to do all things through Christ's strength and power and love. Through Christ's strength and power and love. But it's only when he took his eyes off that he actually started to sink. All right, I hope this has been helpful and I pray that you will focus more on the power and the love of Christ who dwells in you. Amen. Talk to you soon. Bye for now.
