The Search for Spiritual Power | Acts 19:11-20
In 1982, Larry Walters tied helium-filled weather balloons to a lawn chair and took off over Los Angeles. His control system was a pellet gun: shoot a few balloons when it was time to descend.
He reached about 16,000 feet. Then he dropped the gun.
Larry got the power. But he never had the control.
Most of us would never attempt Larry’s flight. But we can approach life with a similar plan: find something powerful enough to lift us while keeping the controls in our own hands.
Sometimes we approach Jesus that way, too.
We want him to bless our plans, protect our families, and make life work.
God welcomes our requests. But a searching question remains: Are we entrusting ourselves to him, or trying to get him to do what we want?
This Sunday, Acts 19 brings that question into the open through the seven sons of Sceva. These men invoke “the Jesus whom Paul proclaims,” treating his name as a power they can manipulate and use for their own ends.
But the response is devastating: “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”
Their story challenges us to consider whether we know Christ ourselves—and what we are seeking from him. It also offers hope for those who have discovered how little they can control. The risen Jesus gives new life, strengthens us in his love, and enables us to stand when life is hard.
Join us this Sunday as we explore the difference between trying to use Jesus and learning to trust him.
Jesus is not a means to your ends. He is the end for which you were made.
Sermon Outline
The Search for Spiritual Power — Acts 19:11–20
The Danger of Using Jesus for Your Own Ends
The Danger of Knowing Jesus Only Through Others
The Danger of Seeking Jesus’ Power in the Wrong Places
Ephesians 1: Power that raised Christ above every authority.
Ephesians 2: Power that makes spiritually dead sinners alive.
Ephesians 3: Power that strengthens us to know Christ’s love.
Ephesians 6: Power that enables us to stand against evil.
Conclusion: The Word That Prevails — Acts 19:20
Discussion and Application Questions
Acts 19:11–20 — The Search for Spiritual Power
Heartbeat: Jesus welcomes us to bring him our needs. This passage challenges our attempts to control him and invites us to trust the Savior to whom we belong.
1. Invitation
What stands out to you in this passage? Where do you recognize the desire for control that we explored in the sermon?
2. Ownership
Think of something you are asking God for right now. When his answer is delayed or different from what you hoped, how do you respond? Do you notice any expectation that your faithfulness should guarantee a particular outcome?
3. Dissent
In what part of your life is “Thy will be done” hardest to pray honestly? What are you afraid trusting God there might involve?
4. Ownership
Who has helped you know and trust Jesus? How can you tell when you are being strengthened by someone else’s faith and when you are relying on it in place of trusting Christ yourself?
5. Ownership
The Ephesians’ repentance involved giving up something valuable. Is there a habit, practice, or source of security that competes with your trust in Christ? What makes it difficult to release?
6. Possibility
In Ephesians 3:14–19, Paul prays for believers to be strengthened to know Christ’s love. Where do you need that strength right now? What might it enable you to do, even while you continue praying for your circumstances to change?
7. Gifts
When have you experienced God’s faithfulness in a situation you could not control? What helped you trust him that might encourage someone else?
8. Commitment
What is one response you believe God is calling you to make this week? Be specific about the step, when you will take it, and who could support you.
Notes for Leaders
Choose the questions that best serve your group; you do not need to finish all eight. Give particular attention to questions 2, 5, and 8.
Allow time for people to think. If helpful, share a brief, honest answer of your own before inviting others. Give people freedom to pass or to discuss sensitive matters privately.
Keep the distinction between asking and bargaining clear. Praying earnestly for help is an expression of faith. Grief, disappointment, and questions do not by themselves mean someone is trying to manipulate God.
When discussing question 5, help the group identify what actually competes with obedience to Christ. Savings, medical care, planning, and support from others can be gifts through which God provides.
Close by returning to grace: repentance is a response to Christ’s love, not a payment for his acceptance. Pray for the specific needs and steps people have shared.
Call to Worship: Ephesians 3:14-21
for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do so much more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Confession of Faith
Adapted from Westminster Larger Catechism, Question 67
Leader: How does God bring us to faith in Jesus Christ?
Congregtion: We believe that God brings us to Christ through the mighty work of his Spirit.
His call arises from his gracious love, without any merit in us.
Through Scripture and the Spirit’s work, he opens our understanding, changes our desires, and draws us to the Savior. Though sin had left us spiritually dead, he gives us both the willingness and the ability to respond freely to his invitation and receive his grace.
Our salvation is his gift, and all the glory belongs to him.
Amen.
Confession of Sin
Leader: Merciful Father, you have made us alive with Christ and welcomed us by grace.
Yet we confess that we still try to live on our own terms.
Congregtion: We have sought your power to fulfill our plans while resisting your authority over our desires.
We have treated obedience as a bargain and prayer as a way to secure the life we want.
Leader: We have mistaken familiarity with your Word for faith in your Son.
We have admired the trust of others while keeping parts of our own lives from you.
We have clung to habits and sources of security that draw us away from obedience.
Congregation: Forgive us for Jesus’ sake.
Strengthen us by your Spirit to know his love.
Teach us to bring you our needs with honest trust, to turn from sin, and to stand in the strength you supply.
We ask through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.
Silent confession
Assurance of Pardon
Hear the good news from Ephesians 2:4–5:
“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”
Our hope rests in God’s mercy and the finished work of Jesus Christ. He died for our sins, rose from the dead, and reigns above every power and authority.
To all who turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ: your sins are forgiven. You are saved by grace and belong to him.
Thanks be to God.
Songs of Worship
Call Upon The Lord
Christ Our Hope In Life And Death
Give Us Your Heart
Psalm 23
Before the Throne of God Above
