MANOR PARK CHRISTIAN CENTRE

CARE CELL GROUPS

“God Is Able To Do Immeasurably More Than All We Ask Or Imagine”
Welcome: People from how many different national or cultural backgrounds have you had
conversations with this past week?

Worshipping God: Read Revelation 7:9-10. How does this inspire you to worship God?

Walking with God: SCRIPTURE: Ephesians 3:16-21

Choose and discuss three or four of the questions below for the next 25 minutes (maximum).
Encourage cell members to examine the other questions during their own quite time during the week.
In the Old Testament, a Jewish festival which took place the 50th day after the Sabbath of
Passover week was called the “Feast of Harvest” or the “Day of First Fruits,” which was a day
of thanksgiving for the first fruits of the harvest. In the New Testament, this 50th day came to be
known as “Pentecost”—the Greek word for “50.”
In the Book of Acts, we read that it was on the Day of Pentecost that the promised Holy Spirit
was poured out upon those first believers of the early church, and they discovered the reality of
the promise that God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (NIV,
Ephesians 3:21). As a result, 3000 people were “born of the Spirit.” Thus the Old Testament
“Feast of Harvest” took on a new meaning on the Day of Pentecost—it was the first fruits of a
harvest of souls for the Kingdom of God.

1. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would be like “streams of living water” flowing from those
who choose to believe in Him. What should be characteristic of believers’ lives who are
filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit? In the context of Ephesians 3:16-20, what do you
think God is wanting to do in and through every believer’s life that is “immeasurably more
than all we ask or imagine”?

Notes: During the time of Jesus’ ministry—at another Jewish festival called the “Feast of
Tabernacles”—Jesus declared: “’If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow
from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were
later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not
yet been glorified” (NIV, John 7:37-39).

2. Jesus said: “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (NIV, John 14:15). As
believers, we need a fresh Pentecostal infilling of God’s love (Ephesians 3:16-20) that will
enable us to love Him and to be obedient in serving Him. When we allow Jesus Christ to be
the Lord and Saviour of our lives, He becomes our Master and we become His servants. As
His followers, our lives should be evidenced by a servant’s heart. What does it mean to have
a servant’s heart? Or what is the characteristic attitude and actions of the person who does
not have the heart of a servant?

Notes: For example, if you were living as a household servant, would you get up and say:
“Well, Master, this is how I want to spend my day serving you! Just listen to the
great ideas that I have! I have a great agenda for my day! You’re going to love it!”

3. How does having the heart of a servant affect a believer’s attitude and actions towards
others? How, or in what practical ways, do we become “givers” and not just “receivers”
 when we have the heart of a servant?

Notes: For example, do we have a passion to go to a cell group gathering, not just looking
for what we can receive but for what we can do to serve and to give ourselves away
for others?

4. As believers, we also need a fresh Pentecostal infilling of God’s love (Ephesians 3:16-20)
that will enable us to love one another. Jesus said: “A new commandment I give you: Love
one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you
are my disciples if you love one another” (NIV, John 13;34-35). Why, or in what way, is
loving one another regardless of any cultural, social, national, and racial barriers something
that only God can do through us that is immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine”?
How, or in what ways, is this kind of love for one another evident in your cell group?

Notes: For example, one of the great revivals that affected the church around the world was
known as the Azusa Street Revival. A recent Christian magazine article said this
about this revival: “The most outrageous thing about the Azusa Street Revival,
which occurred in Los Angeles in 1906, wasn’t the speaking in tongues or claims of
miracles. It was the fact that people of different races had come together to worship.
Early Pentecostals claimed this multiracial unity as the most significant proof of the
Holy Spirit among them.” “Where the Spirit Leads” by Aaron McCarroll Gallegos

5. As believers, we also need a fresh Pentecostal infilling of God’s love (Ephesians 3:16-20)
that will enable us to love those who are lost without Christ. Jesus Christ, who comes to live
within us by His Spirit, will enable us to have His same passion and compassion for the lost
(see Luke 19:10 & Matthew 9:36). In what way must we be prepared to “die to self” as
believers if we are to have hearts that overflow with love for those who are lost without
Christ?

Notes: For example, after the Day of Pentecost which we read about in Acts 2, we find that
those first believers had a passionate love for those who were lost without Christ that
propelled them out into their communities with hearts full of boldness and a fire that
even persecution could not quench. When the Apostles Peter and John were arrested
and imprisoned for passionately sharing their faith, the believers of the early church
met together and prayed. But they didn’t pray selfishly for themselves! Their prayer
was for more of the Holy Spirit’s boldness to lovingly share their faith with those
who were lost.

6. To be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19) that will enable us
to love Him, to love one another, and to love those who are lost without Christ, we need to
humbly allow the Lord to cleanse us from all sin. And we need to be willing to “die to self”
and to humbly allow Jesus Christ to be Lord over every aspect of our lives. What else did
Jesus say in John 7:38 that we need to do?

Oneness with the family of God: Pray for one another that you will be “filled to the
measure of all the fullness of God.”

Working for God: In what practical way can you reach out in love to those believers who are
from a different cultural, social, national, or racial background from you?

Witnessing for God: Pray together for the Lord’s guidance as to how your cell group can
reach out in love to those who are lost without Christ.