Beginning at the End of OurselvesThe Importance of Relying on God’s Power

The challenge for us living in American culture is to live in such a way that we are radically dependent on and desperate for

the power that only God can provide.

Subtle Danger

The American DreamPrizes what people can accomplish when they believe in

themselves and trust in themselves. Goal: Make much of ourselves

vs.

The Gospel of Jesus ChristThe gospel beckons us to die to ourselves and

believe in God and trust in his power. Goal: Make much of God.

Exalting Our Inability

In direct contradiction to the American dream, God actually delights in exalting our inability.

Why did God design the battle plan for taking the first city (Jericho) in the Promised Land? (Joshua 5-6)

He was divinely orchestrating the events of his people so that in the end only he could get the glory for what would happen.

Exalting Our Inability

This is how God works….

He puts his people in positions where they are desperate for His power, and

then he shows his provision in ways that displayed his greatness.

Dependent on Ourselvesor

Desperate for His Spirit?

Clearly, it doesn’t require the power of God to draw a crowd in our culture.

A few key elements that we can manufacture will suffice.

Dependent on Ourselvesor

Desperate for His Spirit?●First, we need a good performance.

●Second, we gather all our resources to build a multi-million dollar facility to house the

performance.

●Finally, once the crowds get there, we need to have something to keep them coming back. Then we start

programs and rely on professionals to handle the ministries.

Dependent on Ourselvesor

Desperate for His Spirit?

What is strangely lacking in the picture of performances, personalities, programs and

professionals is desperation for the power of God. God’s power is at best an add-on to our

strategies.

The Scene of the Church in Acts

The church I long to be apart of today…

▪A scene where we refuse to operate in a mind-set dominated by an American dream that depends on what we can achieve

in our own abilities.

▪A scene where we no longer settle for what we can do in our own power.

▪A scene where the church radically trusts in God’s great power to provide unlikely people with

unlimited, unforeseen, uninhibited resources to make his name known as great.

Ordinary Christians, Extraordinary God

What if God in all his grace is radically committed to showing himself strong on behalf of a people who express their need

for him so their lives might make much of him?Example: George Muller

God delights in using ordinary Christians who come to the end of themselves and choose to trust in his extraordinary

provision. He stands ready to allocate his power to all who are radically dependent on him and radically

devoted to making much of him.

ON OUR KNEES

It is the way of Christ. Instead of asserting ourselves, we crucify ourselves. Instead of imagining all of the things we

can accomplish, we ask God to do what only he can accomplish. Yes, we work, we plan, we organize, and we create, but we do it all while we fast, while we pray, and while we constantly confess our need for the provision of

God. Instead of dependence on ourselves, we express radical desperation for the power of his Spirit, and we trust that Jesus stands ready to give us everything we ask for so

that he might make much of our Father in the world.

THINK ABOUT IT

Would you say that your life is marked right nowby desperation for the Spirit of God?

Would you say that the church that you are a part ofis characterized by this sense of desperation?

We will then discover that we were created for a purpose much greater than ourselves, the kind of purpose that can

only be accomplished in the power of his Spirit.

My Radical Experiment

I agree with the Radical claim that I can find satisfaction and real service to God only in abandonment to Jesus. So I

hereby commit to one year experiment of radical living according to the gospel ….. And making myself open to

permanent changes God wants to perform in my life as a result of this experiment.

Over the next year

I will……

My Radical Experiment

I will pray for the entire world.

I will read through the entire Word.

I will sacrifice my money for a specific purpose.

I will spend time in another context.

I will commit my life to multiplying community.

Beginning at the End of OurselvesThe Importance of Relying on God’s Power