William Carey (1761-1834) the pioneer missionary in the 18th century was ridiculed and scolded for his bold vision to go to India and engage in international missions. Carey was a bivocational pastor who worked as a cobbler (shoemaker). "In his workshop, he hung a large map of the world and wrote information on it about peoples who had not heard the Gospel. In 1792, Carey and his friends gathered in Kettering, England, and formed the Baptist Missionary Society. The next year, Carey and his family set sail for India, where he served for more than 40 years. The modern missionary movement had begun." (Source:
Christianhistoryinstitute.org)
Carey was told by an older pastor: "Young man, sit down. When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine." But it was William Carey who gave us this famous quote: "Attempt great things for God and expect great things from God."
For the remainder of this week, I will write about
Ephesians 3:20-21. I am currently preaching through a series of messages in our church called "God Is Able." Months back, I was scrolling through Instagram and saw where someone had listed the biblical texts that referred to God as being able. There were seven of these verses, so I decided to preach, along with our preaching team at church, on each of these verses. It has been a joy to study and to share these messages with our people as we focus together on how God is powerful and able to do anything!
The context of our scripture verse for today is this: it is the conclusion of a prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers. The prayer begins in
Ephesians 3:14 and finishes in
verse 21.
Verse 14 reads,
"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." What is the
"exceedingly abundantly above" that Paul mentions in
verse 20? He tells us in the previous verses: strengthened by the Holy Spirit in the inner man (
vs. 16); we have faith in Jesus and grounded in love (
vs. 17); to comprehend and know the love of Christ, and filled with the fullness of God (
vs. 18-19). If we had these spiritual graces and realities, we would be experiencing the exceedingly abundantly above kind of life that God desires for us to live.
"To Him" in verse 20 refers to God the Father, as seen in
verse 14 and
19.
"Who is able"–I love that. The Greek word for "able" is
dynamai (verb) from which we get the English words dynamite and dynamism. God is able; He has all power to do. God is a God of action. He does; He works; He moves; He changes things. He makes the impossible possible. God is sovereign, omnipotent, and He is, as
Revelation 1:8 states, the
pantokrator, translated "the Almighty". Reflecting on the power of God is always a great spiritual and mental exercise.
Are you seeing God do the miraculous in your life? If not, please know that He is able and desires to bless and use us for His glory. Will you attempt something great for God today and expect great things from God?
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