The Power of Our God - Brendan Hurley - 30th Aug 2026

Well, if you've got your Bible open, please keep

it there at Ephesians 3, 14 to 21. And let's

pray, let's ask God for help as we look at his

word now. Gracious Heavenly Father, we ask that

you would help us to see how powerful you are

and help us to be people who access that power

by prayer. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well, back in 2024, when we were living in Broken

Hill, there was a big storm that hit the town

and it caused a massive power outage. It wiped

out seven old transmission towers, the diesel

backup generator that was meant to power the

town failed, and we had weeks of rolling blackouts.

And if you're thinking, this sounds familiar,

yes, I have told you about this before. But one

thing that was particularly annoying about this

event was out at the edge of town was a solar

farm, a really big one. It could power 23 ,000

homes. And the town of Broken Hill has only 17

,000 people. So it's more than enough. But it

was not set up to actually be able to do that.

You know, good government foresight there. But

10 days of regulatory negotiations and emergency

software updates, that's what it took before

they could start using it. And I just thought

it was silly. You know, the power that everyone

needed was there, but the problem wasn't the

power, it was the willingness to access it, wasn't

it? Now, I reckon the same thing happens with

God's power in our lives. There are times where

we're weak, and vulnerable. And God's power is

there. It's available. But we're unwilling to

access God's power. Think of those times where

you sin again and again and again. You just get

in a pattern and a habit of sinning. And rather

than come to God and try and deal with it and

get His power, you either bury it, avoid it,

or try and fix it yourself. Or are there times

where we fight, we have conflicts and tensions

and relationships that fracture, whether at home,

whether in church, whether at work, whatever

it might be, and we get angry and we complain.

But we don't try and access the power needed

to forgive and repair and repent. Or we face

temptations. You know, we've got these growing

desires within us to think and live like the

world around us. And rather than utilise God's

power which is there, we convince ourselves,

oh no, I'm strong enough to handle it, I'll be

fine, I'll be fine, when we won't be. Or we get

downhearted. Things don't go as expected in our

life. We feel bitter and disillusioned with God.

We get in a rut spiritually. And whilst God's

power is there to comfort us and strengthen us,

we don't access that power. See, God's power

often sits there idle, just like that solar farm,

because we don't access it anywhere near the

amount we should. And if you're here today and

you're not yet a Christian, you might be thinking,

well, you know, that's all well and good. You

guys believe in this powerful God and whatever.

It sounds like a bit of a psychological crutch

to me. If that's you, I hope you'll keep listening

too. I want to show it's not. I want to show

you it's the most amazing power you've ever encountered.

Because today I want to show you how real and

how great God's power actually is. I want to

show you how important it is for our lives. And

I want to show you how to access it and keep

accessing it. Here's the big thing we're going

to see from our passage today. God's power transforms

our lives when we're invited in by prayer. God's

power transforms our lives when we're invited

in by prayer. And there's three things we're

going to see in our passage about how to pray

about God's power. Pray to our powerful Father.

we pray for the Spirit's power within us and

we pray for power to grasp Christ's love. It's

just another one of those awesome Trinitarian

passages in Ephesians, isn't it? Pray to our

powerful Father, pray for the Spirit's power

within us and pray for power to grasp Christ's

love. So let's have a look at the first one.

Pray to our powerful Father. I mean, how can

you be sure prayer even does anything? Is it

just me with my cup of coffee and my hands together

looking at the roof? Like, is it just me and

the roof? No. No, it's powerful. And not because

prayer is a magical trick or technique or some

psychological hack. Prayer is powerful because

of who you're praying to. God is living and active.

He's strong and mighty. And this reality inspires

us to pray and changes us as we pray. Take a

look at verse 14 with me. For this reason I kneel

before the Father from whom every family in heaven

and on earth derives its name. It's saying God

is the source of everything. All names, all families,

they sovereignly come from him. I mean, Adam

named the animals. Parents name their kids. I

named my firstborn, Ethan James. I was trying

to get as many spy names in there as I could.

Ethan Hunt, James Bond. I couldn't get Jason

Bourne in, but you know, maybe we'll have another

one. I don't know. But it was, naming is a sign

of care and authority, isn't it? That's that's

when someone gets to name someone else. It's

a sign of care It's a sign of authority and ownership

of that person. They belong to you. They belong

to your family and In 3 9 in Ephesians we see

that the God we worship is the God who created

all things So he cares for us. He's got authority

over us. We belong to him, but his power is unmatched

And that's why Paul says in verse 20, that amazing

verse, God's answers to our prayers will exceed

our asks. You know, AI, if you've ever used AI,

it can do some amazing things, can't it? Even

AI couldn't work out the amazing things that

God is doing. He's infinitely wise, infinitely

powerful. And he's proven it, hasn't he? Because

it's according to the power in us. What's that

power? In chapter one we learnt that that power

is resurrection power. It's the same power that

raised Christ from the dead. and seated him in

the heavenly places. And it's the same power

that spiritually raises us from the dead. That

God could take sinners who were shaking their

fists at him going, I want nothing to do with

you. I've bought Satan's lie. I want to live

life my own way and do my own thing. That's the

best way to live. That he could take them and

turn them around. and make them go, yes, I want

to worship you God, you're the best, you save

me, you love me, you're the most amazing God.

That's incredible power. And nothing is impossible

for God. He's the creator, he's the redeemer.

Nothing is impossible for him. And nothing could

be better than the answers he gives us when we

pray. Nothing could be better than what he's

doing in the world. You probably know the US

President has a briefcase that follows him around

wherever he goes. It's called the nuclear football.

He can call on nukes to be launched anywhere

at any time. I mean, that's power, isn't it?

I don't know why they keep voting in the sort

of people they vote in to have that power, but

anyway. You want someone really good with that

power, don't you? Because you can wipe out cities

just like that. And yet even that power is limited

in its strength. It's only destructive, isn't

it? It's not constructive power. And it's very

excessive power. You can't get a proportional

response with that sort of power. Actually, it's

a really bad idea to use that sort of power because

there'll be huge consequences if used poorly.

You know, you think, yeah, that's power. Nukes

are powerful. But compare it with praying to

our powerful God. Do you think that praying to

our powerful God is more powerful than being

able to launch nukes? It is. Because when you

pray to our God, he's going to honour and bless

those prayers and use them for good. His actions

are good and constructive, his actions will be

proportionate to what is needed, he will bring

about the best outcome and when we pray it always

works not because our prayers are so good but

because our God is so good. He's the one who's

wise, he's the one who's in control and he's

infinitely powerful. What could be more powerful

than praying to him? to invite Him into your

life to act. If you do that, it's only going

to go well, isn't it? I think too often we make

prayer the last resort rather than the first

resort, isn't it? We need to pray to our powerful

God more because He will do more than we ask,

think or imagine. My dear mum who's here today,

she got divorced when I was three. And I can't

remember if I did, but as a kid, I'm sure I would

have been praying then that my parents would

have got back together. But you know, from my

divorce, sorry, from my mum's divorce, it meant

my mum went back to church and her faith reignited.

And that meant for me, I got dragged along to

church. It might have been kicking and screaming,

but I still went. And I became a Christian. And

I found hope. and meaning and a loving father

better than anything I'd ever imagined. What

God gave me exceeded what I would have asked

for and it always will when we pray to him because

he's that good and that amazing. But one of the

reasons I think Christians slide into prayerlessness

and look confession time at least I do I think

the reason I struggle to pray sometimes is because

it feels like God says no. Or that he does very

little. That he's going to do less than I ask

for or imagine. What do you do then? What do

you do then if you're feeling like that? If you're

there going, I'm struggling to believe prayer

is even doing anything. Well, my answer might

surprise you. Don't white -knuckle it. Don't

just push through and keep praying. I'd want

to suggest you stop praying for a second. Briefly

pause and take the time to remember who you're

praying to. The God you're praying to is the

one who made and rules all. He's the God who

did more than we can ask or think at the cross,

didn't he? in sending his own dear son to die

for our sins and bring us into eternal life.

He's done more than we could ask or think in

creating the church, in creating a church of

people from all nations and all tribes united

in Jesus. And I'm sure if you look at it, he's

done incredible things in your life that you

can remember. Things that at the time looked

horrible and you went, I can't understand why

God is doing this. And then... Years later, you

look back in the rear view mirror and you go,

oh, I get it now. And you let those truths sink

in. And you thank God for them. And then you

start praying again. Because you're praying from

a different mindset, aren't you? See, if you

know that God is that good, that wise, that powerful,

it will make you more prayerful and more bold.

in prayer. But not only that, it'll also change

what you pray for. Yes, pray to our powerful

Father. See that He's a powerful Father and pray

to Him. But also, pray for the Spirit's power

within us. Pray for the Spirit's power within

us. Come with me to verse 16. Paul says there,

I pray that out of His glorious riches, He may

strengthen you with power through His Spirit

in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell

in your hearts through faith." So Paul is praying

for them to be strengthened inwardly, spiritually.

How? What's it mean to be strengthened like that?

He's saying, I want you to continue to believe

in the gospel. I want you to have a faith that

stays strong by trusting in the riches of God's

glorious grace. He's praying that they'd keep

going as Christians. That Christ would dwell

in their hearts. I mean at one level, if you're

a Christian, Christ is dwelling in your hearts.

So why would he be praying that again? Because

he's saying, I want it to keep going. I mean,

this is temple language, Christ dwelling in your

hearts. He's trying to say, I want you to be

a fitting place for Jesus to live. It's praying

that Christ would be so deeply established in

their hearts and would be so at the center of

their lives that their lives just reek of Jesus.

And this is pretty key. It's bridging the next

section. So the first half of Ephesians is all

about how God creates our unity in Christ, but

then the second half is all about how we maintain

our unity in Christ. And this is the bridge to

that. He's been talking about the identity we

have in Christ in chapters one to three, but

now in the second half, he's gonna start to talk

about how we live it out. And if we're gonna

do that, we need to pray, don't we? We need God's

help to help us live out our new identity. And

so praying that Christ would be so at home, so

present in us, that it changes our lives, that's

the right thing to be praying for, isn't it?

When we move to Cairns... We moved into Trevor

and Sue's house and they left it really, really

nice for us, actually, if I'm honest. But now

that we're new occupants living in their house,

some things have changed. If you were to come

to our house, you would find there's a lot more

toys than maybe they would have had, a lot more

bunk beds, a lot more monkey bars. Trevor's office

has now become the kids' Lego room. And you'd

find there's a lot more divots in the front lawn

from where I've practiced my golf swing. I mean,

that's just what happens when someone new moves

in. They reside there and the house changes to

match who they are. And it's the same as Jesus

moves into you as a person. If he resides in

you, everything about you starts to change, doesn't

it? Your life starts to change. And it takes

strength for that to happen. It takes strength

to do that work of changing everything so that

it's fitting for Jesus. And it's the same with

us. That's why we pray for God's Spirit to strengthen

us so that he can renovate and transform our

hearts to make us as people a fitting place for

Jesus to live. I mean, that's the Spirit's work.

It's crucial work. especially when our hearts

tend to be so sinful and we're so susceptible

to Satan's schemes. We need the Spirit's help

to help us be strong, to create a place where

Jesus can live within us. But this work will

stall and stagnate if we don't pray. Yet so often,

Prayer for this sort of stuff. I know in my life

slides into the background Because there's all

these other things that seem so urgent and important

and pressing That bills coming in Let's pray

for money with that or is there that promotion

coming? I want to pray about that. I've got a

health issue Let's pray about that. Oh, there's

a bit of friction in that, you know We're dealing

with this kid and he's doing this thing. Okay,

let's pray about that And yes, those are important

things to pray about. But what's the most important?

It's to pray that our hearts would keep being

transformed, isn't it? Praying for our hearts

to be transformed more than our circumstances,

that is the key. Yes, pray about your circumstances,

but pray more for your heart. Pray through your

feelings, your beliefs, your thoughts. pray that

you'd change. It might be something like this,

Father, please may your spirit strengthen me

so I am more content, joyful, wise and generous

when money is tight. Or, Father, please help

me that I would work well in my job as if I was

serving Christ even when my boss is being a jerk.

Even if I don't get that promotion and I feel

stuck in my job, help me to trust that you're

in control. Father, help me to be kind and patient

and not bitter when my health is crashing. Help

me to keep my hope strong in that one day my

health will be perfect when I see you forever.

Father, help me to see the problems I bring to

the different relationships I'm in. Not just

to see the other things that other people are

doing. Help me to see my part and help me to

change. Praying prayers like that, that's real

power, isn't it? Praying prayers like that to

a powerful God, that does something. They're

prayers that change you deeply. But we aren't

just to pray for our individual inner change.

There's another thing we're to pray for. We're

to pray for power to grasp Christ's love. We're

to pray for power to grasp Christ's love. Have

a look with me at the second half of verse 17

there. So he says, so that Christ may dwell in

your hearts, here's his prayer, through faith,

and I pray that you being rooted and established

in love may have power together with all the

Lord's people to grasp. how wide and long and

high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know

this love that surpasses knowledge, that you

may be filled to the measure of all the fullness

of God. Hallelujah. So he's saying, Paul's praying

that they'd be rooted, think soil, that they'd

be able to grow and flourish. And he says that

they'd be grounded. Think foundation of a building.

rooted and grounded in love. He's praying for

a culture of love, an environment of love. And

that should be our prayer too. Actually, funnily

enough, it's in our vision for 2030. We pray

our church would double in size to 200 people

because we're growing in love. We're praying

for a culture of love. And who wouldn't want

to be in a community that loves deeply, a community

where each member loves like Jesus does. The

church I grew up in, it was a place of amazing

love. It's a small little church of about 60

people. We had a lot of young guys there who

had some tricky family things and we had, there

was this one particular guy, Nathan, he was just

like a father figure to many of us. It was so

loving. And there was just immense generosity

from different people, but also their willingness

to have hard conversations when they needed to

be had. And it was a safe place, a place where

you felt loved, cared for and secure. There was

forgiveness and growth, there was people sharing

life in each other's homes, people owning their

mistakes, people being humble. And I think of

here too. I think this is a loving church. I've

been here a year. I've found it to be a very

loving church. I've seen the way people give

each other meals. I've seen the way people have

supported each other through things like cancer

and other hardships and other pain. I've seen

the encouragement and the prayer and the serving

that people give to one another. Now, contrast

those two churches with the Sydney Swans right

now. Yes, you can talk to me about the Sydney

Swans at the moment. I am a Sydney fan. I know

it is horrible. It is an awful situation Because

of these five toxic and selfish players now,

I don't know exactly what happened or what was

done But they had players on their team who'd

been in four losing grand finals who were going

for another tilt at the Premiership Love wouldn't

have done what they did, would it? And you know

what? It's going to be really hard for the players

in the club right now as they try and work out

this whole thing of, did these players come back

or not? What would love do? How do you forgive

in this situation? How do you make the other

players feel safe and the women's team feel safe

when all this has happened? How do you? I'm glad

I don't have to work that one out. But see, a

footy club, they tend to focus on professionalism

and discipline. But love? That's tricky for a

footy club. Because how can you have love? What

would unite a footy club in a loving way? What

creates a culture of love? Well, Paul tells us

here what creates a culture of love for churches.

It's Christ's love. Did you see it in verses

18 and 19? Just have a read of it again. That

you may have power together with all the Lord's

holy people to grasp how wide and long and high

and deep is the love of Christ and to know this

love that surpasses knowledge that you may be

filled to the measure of all the fullness of

God. What will create a culture of love? It's

Christ's love. And we need power, we need strength

to grasp and know Christ's love. Really? Why

is it that hard to receive love? Well, yeah.

Because comprehending and receiving and experiencing

love is not actually easy. See, our sinful nature

keeps trying to poke holes in Christ's love.

It's always whispering in our ear, oh, you can't

trust Christ's love. Your sin is too great. Oh,

Jesus hasn't really got your best interests at

heart. You'd be better off if you do it your

own way. And the Spirit needs to keep powerfully

reminding us that Christ's love is true and sufficient

and beautiful. And the other reason that we need

power and strength to grasp Christ's love is

that His love is so great. Did you see it there?

It surpasses knowledge. The dimensions of his

love, its height, its length, its width and depth,

they're incalculable. There's always more to

see, more to learn, more to experience. The closest

picture I've got is it's like snorkeling on the

Great Barrier Reef. I mean, it's a joy to see,

doesn't it? It's just so good, but it takes energy.

It takes energy because it's so vast and you

could be swimming around all day and kicking

with your flippers and looking around and you'd

go, wow, I still haven't seen everything. There's

more to see, isn't there? Or think of astronauts

going out into space in a rocket ship. There's

always more to see, isn't there? Well, we've

done the moon. Been there, done that. What's

next? Let's go to Mars. You know, that takes

a lot of energy, takes a lot of effort. But it's

worth it because there's great things to discover.

Well, Christ's love is like that. It's immeasurably

incalculable. I mean, think about Christ's love

for a second. Think about how undeserved it is.

That's incalculable, isn't it? How undeserved

Christ's love for us is. Think how costly it

was for Jesus. Could you ever grasp or measure

or comprehend how costly it was for Jesus to

experience the full weight of God's wrath as

he hung on the cross? Think of the benefits of

Christ's love. Think about how amazing it is

that you can have eternal life in glory and paradise

with the ruler of the universe. What could be

better than that? You could... Spend your whole

life trying to calculate it, and you'd never

be able to fully grasp how good it's going to

be. And think how steadfast Christ's love is.

How loyal. That he doesn't just love you at the

start, and then if you keep going really well,

he'll keep loving. No, he loves you through the

ups and downs, doesn't he? You could spend a

lifetime swimming around Christ's love, swimming

in it, and there'd still be new wonders and depths

to discover, wouldn't there? But sometimes our

problem is we're so busy that we stop reflecting

on the magnitude of Christ's love. It's like

that power station in Broken Hill, that solar

plant. It's there, but we just don't access it.

And we go, well, why am I feeling so far from

God right now? Why am I being so unloving to

other people? Why do I feel flat as a Christian?

And it's because we've stopped trying to comprehend

Christ's incomprehensible love. That love is

everything. It fuels our joy. It shapes our ethics.

It inspires our worship. It unites our church.

It comforts our griefs. It heals our wounds.

It calms our fears. But it takes strength from

the spirit to take that love to heart. To keep

trying to grasp how great that love is. And without

God's enabling, we will be distracted. We'll

be resistant. We'll be unsure of it. And that's

why we need to pray about it. Pray that we'd

have the power to grasp Christ's love. I don't

know what you do for a prayer habit, but is there

some way you can have that as something you pray

for every single day? Maybe just try it for a

month or two months or something like that. Crack

open this bit in Ephesians and just use it as

a template for your prayers. Just pause, remember

how much Christ has done for you. Remember the

benefits, the cost. how undeserved, the loyalty

he's shown you, and pray about it. Find some

way to do this consistently because it will transform

you and strengthen you in the most amazing ways.

All right, let's tie some threads together. We've

seen today that there's power from God that we

need. Power that transforms our lives in a myriad

of ways. And this power exists, it's there. But

our problem is we often don't prioritise accessing

it. We need to pray to our powerful Father. We

need to pray for the Spirit's power within us.

We need to pray for power to grasp Christ's love.

Sum it all up, God's power transforms our lives

when we invite it in by prayer. So how's all

this play out in our lives? Well, if you're here

today and you're not yet a Christian, is God's

power a psychological crutch? And I want to say

to you, yes, I need a crutch to lean on. It's

not a bad thing. It does do psychological work

on me. But it's so much more than that because

it's real and it's true and it's good. Because

God is real, true and good. And you can access

it by prayer. And if you've never done that before,

why not make today the day that you do that?

Why do you want to keep going in your life without

such an amazing love? Without such amazing strength?

Think of all the comfort you're missing out on

by not having that in your life. So if you've

never done it before, come up the front today.

pray up the front with me or whoever's up here

and pray that you'd experience that love and

power. But if you're a Christian here today,

I've got two things for you. The first is we

need to be people who pray for the gospel to

go deep. That's what Paul's doing here, isn't

it? Pray for the gospel to go deep. I mean, this

is how It works in the structure of Ephesians

1 -3. Paul talks about how God has blessed us,

and then he spends time praying that we'd know

this. And then he talks about how God has united

us in chapter 2, and then there's a little excursus,

which is kind of like brackets, you know. But

then he prays that we'd experience this. Paul's

modelling to us what we should do. We need to

access God's power. We need to access that spiritual

strength. We can't let it just sit there idle.

We need to pray our theology. We need to pray

about the truth of the gospel. That's how we

get it deep into our heart. That's how we strengthen

ourselves spiritually. So pray for the gospel

to go deep into your hearts and the hearts of

everyone here. Pray for a culture of love that's

driven by Christ's love for us. But I also want

to say, pray big prayers expectantly. If God

is the sort of God who can do more than we ask

or think, that should make us bold in prayer,

shouldn't it? Our vision is very bold, I think.

Maybe it's not bold enough, but... For the God

we have, why wouldn't we pray that we'd see 200

people here? Why wouldn't we pray that we could

see a culture of love growing and growing and

growing? Why wouldn't we pray that that non -Christian

friend who we think, there is no way they'll

ever become a Christian, why wouldn't we pray

that they would become a Christian? That sin

we think, oh, there's no way I'm ever going to

overcome that. I'm always going to, no, pray.

Christ's love will change you. That temptation

that conflict in church. Oh, there's no way those

two are ever gonna solve it I mean, do you know

what they're like? They're stubborn as mule.

No pray Pray that God's love would change them

that it would powerfully move in them and It

may take time. It may not go the way we expect

but trust that God is so powerful He's doing

something epic I'd encourage you, if you struggle

with this, come to Revive Prayer Meeting. Fridays,

7am, 119 Camarunga Road. It is so good. I love

it there. It is just such an encouraging time.

Come and just spend half an hour praying with

us. Or pray at home, pray on the way to work,

pray in growth group, do all those things. But

if you want to break out of that persistence

in pattern, it's going to take prayer. If you

want to be a healing force in your relationships,

it's gonna take prayer. If you want to say no

to temptation when its pull is strong, it's gonna

take prayer. If you're so downhearted and discouraged

that you're in a massive rut, it's gonna take

prayer. Prayer that accesses God's power and

sees Christ's amazing love. And not just once,

something consistent, isn't it? So what will

you do? Will you make time to access God's power

or you let it sit there idle. Let's pray. Gracious

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us

to be people of prayer. I know it's a struggle

for me too. Help all of us to pray more, to pray

gospel -centered prayers. to pray consistently

and to pray with great confidence that you are

able to do more than we ask, think or imagine.

And we thank you that every time we doubt that

we can look back to the cross and see that you

have done more than we could have ever asked,

thought or imagined by sending your son to die

for us. Please Father. Help us to be people who

pray to you and who are strengthened by your

power. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.