Marrying Character, Receiving Power
FOUNDATION STATEMENT: If the church is going to
walk in the power of God and fulfill its mandate in the Earth, then it must
qualify itself for the power God by developing in the character of love
I.
If the church is going to
walk in the power of God, we must commit to the character of love
A. Ephesians 4:1-3 – Lowliness
– Humility – Submitting to God and His Word whether you feel like
it or not
1. This is a commandment,
not a suggestion, God told me to do it and I’m going to walk in love whether I
feel like it or not
2. Children give reasons and
make excuses for why they didn’t do what they knew was right
a. Part of developing in
character and growing up to stop making excuses for violating the commandment
b. There is no good excuse
or reason for violating the commandment of love
3. God can work with the
person who comes to him and says, “Lord this person hurt me, but you commanded
me to love them, so I’m going to love them no matter how hard it is.” God can’t work with a person who makes
excuses.
B. Committing to character
is swearing to your own hurt and changing not (Psalm 15:1-5)
1. No matter how
uncomfortable it is for me to keep this commandment I’m going to keep it
a. Matthew 26:37-45, Luke 22:41-44
– Blood came out of Jesus’ pores and he wouldn’t change, he would violate
the character of love
1) Character is when
pressure is put on you, you don’t cave under the pressure
b. God could trust Jesus to
misuse or mishandle the power because Jesus proved himself with character
1) Luke 12:48 – To
whom much is given much is required; we’ve wanted much to be given, but little
to be required
C. A person who commits to the
character of love, will see the power of God show up in their life (Dan 3:6,14-25)
1. Exodus 20:3-5 –
They had a commandment to not bow down to any other gods
a. Making an excuse for why
they bowed isn’t going to be a good reason to bow
b. They said, “We’ll smell
our own flesh burn before we bow down and serve your god.”
2. When somebody showed up
in character, God showed up in power
a. What if the church would
show up in character?
3. People who commit to the
character of love will never fail because they’ll always be backed by the power
of God
II. Form, but no power
A. Because the church has
neglected the character of love, we haven’t walked in the power of God and
we’ve had a lot of form, but we haven’t seen a lot of genuine results (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
1. Power is what’s necessary
to see change and character is what’s necessary to see power
a. EX: Where’s the cities
being changed and nations being changed
B. We left the power of God at
the altar when we refused to marry the character of love
1. The question is not what
powerful thing is God going to do through the church this year, but will the
church finally marry the character of love this year?
a. God’s proposing and
saying will you marry this character of love? Will you commit to it for life? Will you stay with it no matter what
happens, no matter how they treat you, and no matter how hard it gets?
b. Somewhere along the line
the church has been deceived into thinking that we could divorce the character
of love and still walk in the power of God.
2. Before there’s ever going
to be a release and operation of power, There’s first of all going to be a call
for character
a. Who’s going to love God
with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength (resources)?
b. Who’s going to extend the
same love towards others that the Father has extend towards them (John 13:34)?
c. Satan has gotten us to
neglect this commandment in our deception that we got “it” and most believers
don’t even know what “it” is
C. Their conduct belies the
genuineness of their profession (AMP) – They say the love God with their
mouth, but their conduct and character says something else
1. Just because you say you
love God doesn’t PROVE that you love God
a. John 14:15, 1 John 5:3
– If you really love God you do what he says
b. 1 John 4:20 – If
you really love God you love your neighbor
2. 3 areas where the church
has sorely missed it is 1) Loving one another 2) Church attendance 3) The tithe
D. God’s has to work through
the church if we’re going to see the kind of results that the church is capable
of producing
1. John 14:10 – The
Father (who is Love) who was in Jesus was doing the works
a. John 16:7, Romans 5:5
– The same father that was in him is in us
1) If love is not working in
me and through me, then God is not working in me and through me
2. God can only work through
you (the church) in power to the degree that he works through the church in the
character of love (Ephesians 3:14-20)
a. God is only able to do
according to the power that works in us
1) If the power of love is
not working in us, then God can do nothing through us
E. Every temptation in life
is a temptation to get you out of the character of love because Satan knows if
he can disrupt you in character, he can disrupt you in power and keep you from
being victorious on the Earth
1. Genesis 3:1-6--Adam and
Eve failed the character test and when they did, the lost the power of God