How to Use Power Biblically: Ephesians Pt. 9
Sermon Summary
Power is not reserved for politicians or executives. Every person in every relationship wields influence that shapes those around them. The sermon opened with a simple but important idea: power is the ability to influence people, outcomes or environments. Whether you are a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a coworker or a friend, you are constantly shaping others with your words, your presence and your choices. The central question the message posed was not whether you have power, but how you will use it.
To understand what biblical power looks like, the sermon traced the arc of Scripture from Genesis to the New Testament. In the Garden, God created male and female as co-equal image-bearers and gave them dominion over the earth. That dominion was never meant to be exploitative. It was modeled after God's own intent in Genesis 2:15, which calls mankind to tend and care for creation. Mankind was fully provided for, which freed them to look outward and use their influence to help others flourish. Sin introduced insecurity, and power that was meant to serve became a tool for self-preservation. Across human history, we see example after example of power being used the expense of the most vulnerable.
In Ephesians, Paul writes his letter to the Ephesian church; this letter would provide ideas that would upend the Greco-Roman household codes of the day. Paul called every person in the home, whether husband, wife, child, or servant, to mutual submission. Wives submitting to husbands or children obeying parents, was immediately followed by commands that shattered cultural norms: husbands were called to love their wives as Christ loved the church, laying down his life for her, and masters were told to serve their servants.
The sermon challenged believers to follow this same pattern: be filled with the Spirit, submit to others as an act of worship, tend the specific gardens God has placed you in and process offense with God so that forgiveness and reconciliation become a way of life so that your power and influence may cultivate an environment for those around you to flourish.
Key Scriptures
Genesis 1:27-28 (NIV) So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
Ephesians 5:25-27 (NASB1995) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
Philippians 2:3-7 (NASB1995) Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
Ephesians 5:21 (NASB1995) ...and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
Ephesians 6:1-4 (NASB1995) Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Instructions for Your Group
Choose a few of these questions from the various categories to go deeper in the sermon and put the truths of Scripture into practice. You don't need to answer every question. Select the ones that will best help your group engage with God's Word and apply it to your lives.
Scripture Study and Deeper Understanding
These questions are designed to ground your discussion in what the text actually says. Take your time here before moving to application.
1. In Ephesians 5:21, Paul instructs believers to submit to one another before he addresses wives, husbands, children or servants. What does it tell us about the nature of Christian community that mutual submission is listed first, as the foundation for everything that follows?
2. The sermon described how Paul's instructions in Ephesians 5 and 6 would have landed very differently on first-century Ephesian ears than they do on modern ones. Which instructions would have been shocking to the original audience? What do you think Paul was trying to accomplish?
3. Philippians 2:3-7 describes Jesus, who held all power and equality with God, choosing to empty himself and take the form of a servant. How does this passage define what power exercised in love actually looks like? What connections does this have to what we see in Ephesians 5:25?
Encouragement, Challenge and Personal Testimony
These questions invite you to move from understanding the text to connecting it with your own experience of God and of relationships.
4. The sermon defined power as the ability to influence people, outcomes or environments, and argued that every person has it. When you think about the specific relationships and settings in your own life, where do you most feel the weight of the influence you carry?
5. The sermon described a key turning point in the garden: power that was meant to look outward and serve others became turned inward toward self-preservation when sin entered. Where have you seen this dynamic play out in your own relationships? What does it feel like when someone uses their influence for self-protection rather than to build you up?
6. Has there been a moment in your life when someone's willingness to confess or apologize changed something in a relationship? What did that teach you about power and humility?
Putting It Into Practice
These questions are designed to help you move from hearing to doing. Be as specific as possible.
7. The sermon offered four practical steps:
Be filled with the Spirit
Submit to others as an act of worship
Tend the specific gardens God has placed you in
Process offense with God
Which of these four is the Holy Spirit most clearly calling you reflect and act on this week? What would it look like to take one concrete step in that direction?
8. The sermon challenged us to think of specific relationships and places where God has given real influence, and then consider what state of the “garden” those relationships are in. Take a moment to name one relationship or sphere of influence in your life right now. What would it look like to use your power there this week to serve someone's flourishing rather than your own comfort or security?
Prayer
Listening to the Holy Spirit
We're going to take focused time to listen to the Holy Spirit and what He wants to speak to us personally based on our time in Scripture and discussion tonight. Let's sit in silence for 60 seconds and ask the Spirit to speak to each one of us.
[After the minute of silence]
What do you sense the Holy Spirit highlighting or speaking to you as we prayed?
Prayer Requests from Tonight's Study
What prayer requests come up for you based on our Scripture study and discussion tonight? How can we pray for you as you seek to apply what God has shown you?