Turn with me to Paul's doxology in Ephesians, last two verses, chapter three. I called it his doxology, his grand doxology. Paul is writing this letter to the Ephesian Christians and he's in the middle of the letter and he's been speaking in verses 14 through 19 has been praying for these Christians and asking God to do great glorious things for these Christians. You, you, you're familiar with these verses that they may be able to comprehend with all the saints, the breath, the length, the depth, the height to know the love of Christ, these glorious truths. And it's as though Paul is overcome. It's just, he's just overcome and he's writing these things by the spirit of God. And, and then he moves from prayer to praise in his doxology right in the middle of the letter. Forget literary composition. This is the Holy God who reigns, who gives us his word and gave it to Paul. And so our focus today, saints will be verse 20, particularly the first part of it. Every Christian here today needs God to do great things for you. There's no doubt in my mind, every Christian, whatever circumstance, whether it's you or family or somebody, you know, or a situation, you need God to do great things for you. But we so often fail to realize he can do all that we ask and so much more, abundantly more. God's Word. Let me read verses 20 and 21, and then I'll pray. Now unto Him that is able to do, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. May God bless his word. Let's pray. Father, we bow to you. You're the God that speaks. This is your word. These are your truths about your care and your great works for your people. These verses come today with such force, such help, and such need for us to be people of faith. Yes, even as Zeke said, little faith, Lord, increase our faith. You've said here, Lord, how much and so much more you will do for your people. So open it to us, speak to us, draw us into the truths of faith and believing and looking to you for great things. For you reign. Thank you for our great savior who gives us life. We live in him, we move in him and we We worship you, our great God and savior. Teach us now lead us. Amen. This past Monday I was leaving Fort worth and I'm not in Fort worth as much as I used to be. And I, I saw what seems to be a relatively new billboard with only three words on it. Anybody know where I'm going with this red billboard, three words, white font. There's actually two of them. There's one on the kind of on the north side of Fort Worth. There's now one on the south side of Fort Worth, but you have to be driving northbound. Don't get confused. There's two of them, three words, pray period. God listens. Period. Anybody seen it? It's apparently for a radio station, though. I can somewhat appreciate the intent. That message is massively deficient. You say, why? Because God does more than just listen. I mean, think about this. The Christians say he's way more than just listen. He's not just there to listen. We're talking about the living God who rules all things, who does all his good pleasure in all the earth, in this room, in this town, in the cosmos. God does more than listen. I think I get the intent of what they were maybe trying to get at, but it makes God so passive. It should say, I'm not asking anybody to get spray paint and go vandalize the billboard, but it should say, Christians are one that's praised. They're the only one that have access to God. But if you're going to put it up there, say, God hears and He moves and He does great things, exclamation mark. That's what that billboard should say. The one true God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He moves. He didn't just listen. Let me read again out of the King James, which I read while ago, verse 20, what did Paul write by the spirit of God in him? He said now unto him, him that is able or who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Saints, this truth needs to arrest you and me, all of us today. Your heart and your mind need to hear this with fresh faith and hope. God can do anything. There is no limit. There's no measurement to what God does. He's the living God. Zeke was running through his scroll of examples in the life of Jesus. It's throughout the Scriptures, it's who He is. In the beginning God created, so Paul is taking this magnificent reality and he's putting it to where Christians are. who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all you ask or think. Saints, he can do anything. That's the thrust of the whole message. You young people, you children, listen to what brother Philip is saying. God can do anything and then beyond. He'll blow you away. That's who he is. So you may be thinking, Philip, but my, my need is too big. It's just too big. Or you might be thinking, my whole situation, it's too late. It's just too late. Nothing can be fixed now. Nothing can be helped now. Or some of you might even be thinking, my need is too complicated. It's too messy. It's too complicated. God can't fix it. He can't heal. He can't raise it. He can't do great things. That's not right. That's not right. Not for our great God. He changes not. His power is limitless. That's what Paul is saying here. He's able, he's able to do, and he's got these magnificent words put together. So hold on to those three thoughts. Hold on to those three thoughts. Too big, too late, too complicated. And we'll touch on those as we go on. Paul begins this doxology. When he goes into praise, he moves from prayer to praise, and he uses this superlative, this manner of speech would have been in the Greek, but he uses this superlative where he's trying to take it from, it's this big, it's this big, it's this big. It's bigger than I can communicate. That's what he's trying to say here. The King James says, exceeding abundantly above. The ESV, the NASB say far more abundantly. And then the NIV, which is so commonly read by people, it says immeasurably more. So anybody find any limit on any of that? I think the obvious is there's no limit here. It's immeasurably more, how much can he do? It's bigger, it's bigger, it's grander. You can't measure it. That's what, that's what Paul is saying. The Holy Spirit is giving him that now unto him who is able far more exceedingly or abundantly than you can ask or think. Saints, he's, he's getting our attention. He's getting their attention. Can you imagine the first time, the first couple of times the Ephesian Christians read this? They got to that part, they got three more chapters to go. They got the second half of the letter to go, but Paul is speaking of the great works of God for his people. Beloved, he can do anything. And here it pertains to your life. You've been a Christian for one year or three years, and you're in a real difficult situation and God can do anything. That's what you need to hear. Anything. We should be able to stop the recording and just go around this room, one row after another, and let Christians testify of what God has done and is doing. Eric Gentry and I yesterday at lunch, recounting the miraculous, the great things and works of God. We should live or know these realities. We should believe God for them. These are pertaining to our lives. You don't have anything too big. Nobody in this room's got anything too big that God can't deal with. That's the truth. I'm not being charismatic. I'm not being weird. I'm speaking the truth based upon 66 books that say it and prove it. Based upon his creation around us today, based upon notes and messages and things I've read this week, God does everything. He can do anything. It's the truth. You don't have anything too big. As Lloyd-Jones said, You can't help but wonder if Paul has overstated it. Now, come on, Paul. Have you gone too far here? Lloyd-Jones kind of ran that out for a little while. Can this truth be here for all Christians? For ordinary? Is there such a thing? An ordinary Christian, somebody who's gone from death to life, has been made new? We use the word ordinary. Our day-to-day living, our day-to-day weeks, you brothers, you sisters, your life, the steps and the weeks and the activities. True for that. Can, can God do more abundantly, more infinitely more than you could even ask or think? Yes. The answer is resoundingly. Yes. I like the way William Henderson said it. God does not need to overexert himself in order to fulfill your desires. He can do it with ease. You with me? It's just the truth. You go to conferences and stuff, you men been around, and all the rah-rah in the world that goes on in the name of mankind, men, kingdoms, sports, empires, businesses, politics, all they're ranting and raving, and they fail, and God says, I can do it all. That's what God says, that's who he is. We don't just gather to a nice little religious organization, we gather to the living God. We walk with him. I need this as much as anybody. I want to know these realities. I want to be able to ask and think and go to God for big things because He can do it. And so Paul, kind of the focus here that I want to particularly emphasize is Paul brings this into our lives in two areas. If God can do exceeding abundantly above, or immeasurably more than anything we can ask or think, let's stay with these two words, it's thought here. Two areas of our Christian life or in our seeking God, beseeching God, praying to God, asking God to move. First, He can do above all that you ask. You ask for things all the time, don't you? Jake, could you move that piano bench over there? Could somebody bring me an extra handbook? Darius, could you go move my car for me? We ask things all the time. Ask is a little bitty word, isn't it? It's a little bitty word. Children, do you ask things all the time? Do you ask your brothers, your sisters, your mom, your dad, you little boys, do you ask your parents for things? You do, don't you? You ask them. So we tend to get caught in a word that's real little. We know what it means, but it's way bigger than that. We're talking about asking or coming to the living God for things, for works, for his movements, for his answers, for his provisions. So it's not small at all. Children, I want you to rethink the word ask. When you ask the living God, when you cry out to him, he will do great things if you come to him in faith. He's not just reserving it for a few. This is universal to His people. His promise is here. So in this word ask in the Greek, it has way more energy and emphasis to it. It means to call for, to crave. Actually, in some ways you could say beg, but it means desire. It means it's something you earnestly ask for. Y'all with me? that something is in you, you're asking. He is able, stay with this, exceeding abundant more, above all that you call for, desire, or you earnestly cry out to God for. He's able to hear it. He can listen, yes, but he can do something. He will do something. He hears the cries of his people. Do you at times feel you're praying for something too big? Have you felt that before? You've almost been a little bit cautious at a prayer meeting, or you've been cautious on your own private prayer time to ask God for something really big. Have you, you find yourself doing that held back through the years. We've had a lot of prayer meetings here at Providence chapel, hundreds and hundreds, maybe in the thousands by now, who knows, but there's sometimes I've left a prayer meeting where I thought we just prayed at this level. Lord helped me with my, my car repair this week. You might be able to help get a man to help you with a car repair. Lord helped me with X and I'm not diminishing that. We go to God for everything. I don't, don't hear me wrongly. I want you to hear me, but we're talking about asking for things that you want God to do that only he can do. That's what we're talking about. More, abundantly more than you ask. You're beseeching him. God loves to hear it. He loves, he says, come to me, bring it to me. So if you feel like sometimes you're asking for something too big, unless it's just completely selfish and foolish and vain, you can go to God for the great big things. That's what you should be doing. That's what we should be doing. Let God arise, let him work, let him deliver. We need to remember at times hundreds of passages. Just go to any one book of the Bible, Old or New Testament, and look at the promises of God towards his people when he says to ask, call upon him. I mean, sometimes I look at you young people, you children, some of you younger teenagers, I just have flashbacks to that warning, trying to remember, did I learn to go to God and ask him for big things? Boy. What a reality in the Christian life. And I'm not trying to be dramatic. I'm being sincere with our God's care and love in his great works for us. That's what I'm trying to emphasize. The Lord spoke to Jeremiah. It says, and the Lord came and he spoke to Jeremiah. Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? What a question. What a question. It reminds you when God then comes to Job and those men and begins to speak. And he begins to declare his grandeur, his greatness, his complete rule over all things. God says to Jeremiah, this is God's servant. He says to Jeremiah, is there anything too hard for me? It's a rhetorical question. The answer is no. Absolutely not. It's impossible. The next chapter, that was in Jeremiah 32, Jeremiah chapter 33, and then what the Lord came and said to him then, call unto me. This is one we hear, you'll hear it quoted a lot, even by people who don't really know what they're talking about, to be honest with you. Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things. What's the rest of it? Which thou knowest not. You see the thrust there, Saints, asking. What's the emphasis here? God can do abundantly more, infinitely more than anything you can ask. And we're talking about asking has weight to it, significant things. And God says, I can exceed what you can ask. You'll never talk to anybody in humanity that can do that for you. They can't exceed those kinds of things, much less can they even accomplish them. God said to Jeremiah, anything too hard? No. He says, call to me and I'll show you things that you've never even thought of, is what he's saying. You not even know of. Beyond you, the wow factor. The God of glory and grace and all power. We get to the New Testament. What about the Lord Jesus? What is he telling us about asking? I almost want to have the children raise their hands. Did Jesus talk about asking him for things? Children, if you remember Jesus saying, just raise your hand. You remember Jesus say, would he tell us to ask him for things? Yes, he did. Sermon on the Mount, he gets to this whole area of prayer, coming to him, looking to him, and he says, ask and it shall be given unto you. Again, I'm not talking about selfish indulgences, things that you just want. We're not talking about wanting. We're talking about asking God for great works, movements, help. And he says, ask and it shall be given unto you. We take him at his word. Faith, we take him at his word. What did Peter say? You're on this, on the water. Lord, if that's you, if that's you, bid me to come. Jesus, I mean, he's asking him, Lord, is that you? She said, come. The rest is glorious. Peter steps out of a boat and walks on water like I'm standing on this stage. That just doesn't happen in the human dimension, folks. This is God working. Peter asking Christ, beseeching him, and he's saying, I can do it. If that's you, ask me and I'll come. And he came. Later in the gospel of Matthew, I mean, it's throughout the gospels, right? The Lord Jesus speaking of asking, beseeching him, coming to him. That's why he would, people who would come to him, even if their faith was small, if they believed he could do it, I'm going to touch the hem of his garment. And she was healed. Leaders, poor people, the Syrophoenician woman, people, all areas of society in need. When they believed He had the answer, when they would ask Him, what did He do? He took care of all of it. They don't have any more wine. Jesus, is it my time really? You remember that? He made more wine than that feast or that wedding needed for weeks. He had plenty of wine. And not only does He answer, He answers way beyond. It's just incredible. Matthew 21 and all things whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. Remember the context fig tree, what happened to the fig tree? He cursed it next day. They see the fig tree. It's wilted. A wilted fig tree, that's all it took. And they go, wow, Jesus cursed, it's dead. And Jesus turns to him and he says to him, do you have faith? Can you believe me for things? Can you ask me for things? That's what he says. And he says something about a mountain being thrown into the ocean. Come on now. Wow, and Jesus says in the flow of that, he's teaching faith and he's teaching us to ask him for great things for his glory. That's the thrust, saints. All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. Jesus offers a sincere offer. He says, ask in prayer. So I'm emphasizing that this asking is not a small thing. Can you help me with this? I just need a little help today, Jesus. I might be able to make it through college if you'll help me a little bit. Maybe you can help me find a wife or a spouse or somebody. Maybe you can help me with my money. Oh, come on, saints, let's talk at a bigger level. God, lead me, direct my paths, keep my steps, make me a messenger in this earth. Let me walk in holiness. Let me live for the glory of God and my marriage and parenting and all that I'm about. Be exalted. Quit living here. So much more. He says, ask. That brings us back to my first hesitancy. I know it. I say these things too through the years. I'm not implying at all that I've arrived. I've concluded I'm all the way there. Not saying that at all. I'm just saying that he's telling us to ask and he will do great things. The first hesitancy, my need is too big. It's just too big. It's too big. Really? Is it? Too big for you, too big for others, not too big for God. How about God opening the chains to let Peter out of prison? Acts chapter 12. Jake is too big. I mean, he's sleeping between two guards, right? Well, you know the story. Peter's in prison. Herod's got him. Men have got it all wrapped up. We got him taking care of that. Really? Peter gets woke up by the angel, the chains, he's in, he's released. These two guys stay asleep. You know the story. He goes out of the prison. He goes out of the main gate. He goes, he goes up to, he shows up to the prayer meeting. Who knows what they were praying. Lord help Peter wise there. Give him some fresh water, whatever. But. They were stunned. They asked God, they did. It says that they were beseeching God. We know that they were in prayer. Peter was on their heart and Peter shows up. My point is, is it too big? Is there anything too big for God? No. How about Jesus feeding 5,000 people? It seems a little bit too big. One sack lunch, one sack lunch. You run the math, children, it says 5,000, but if that's just the men, if you add the women and children, it's like that football stadium across the freeway over there. It's almost exactly, you pack that whole football stadium out, yes, the whole stadium, and you have one sack lunch. It's a little bit too big, isn't it? The apostles, what are we going to do? We can't go to town. We can't get food. We just got one little scrawny lunch. End of the story, they're gathering up extra. Do you have anything too big for him? I don't. I'm just saying, I'm trying to acknowledge, I don't have anything too big. I know that much. I just need to be more ready to say, Lord, you can do it. You can do it. Do it. Do it for your glory. Feed the 5,000. Work in my life. Work in my neighbor's life. Work in my family member. Work in my child. Do your great work. There is no Item too big. I couldn't help but pull this off last night. I brought it just to read a brief excerpt. John G. Peyton, y'all remember John G. Peyton from Scotland, missionary, middle of the 1800s, almost exactly a contemporary of Spurgeon in terms of his time period. Middle of the 1800s, goes to New Hebrides Islands to give his life in those native jungle type settings to take the gospel of Jesus Christ. not your low risk scenario, right? He's going to go there to bring Jesus Christ to these people. Children, if you, if you can get a copy or any of you of this book, whatever printing it's in, It's riveting. I'm on page to page. I started going through my markings last night, because that's how I keep things. And I'm going, Philip, how many times has he delivered from death? I mean, his situations were always big. John G. Peyton lived in the big, but God was bigger. The natives came to see that. The living God is with that man. Let me just read an excerpt. You children, think about that. Here's a guy in his little house, hut, whatever it was, he's doing work around there and he looks up and now they've got him surrounded. You would think men make this stuff up. This has really happened. Let me just read, I'll be quick here. Dangers again darkened around me. One day while tolling away at my house, the war chief, you really don't want the war chief coming to find you. The war chief and his brother and a large party of armed men surrounded the plot where I was working. They're around his house, children. They all had muskets, probably had stolen those, besides their own native weapons. Oh man, their native weapons were bad news. They bring death in a hurry. I tried to sit there last night, ponder this. Here he is sitting there. And these guys are now surrounded his house with some guns and native weapons. This is too big. He doesn't live to see the next day. They watched for me. They watched me for some time in silence. And then every man leveled a musket straight at my head. Escape was impossible. Speech would have only increased my danger. My eyesight came and went for a few moments. I prayed to my Lord Jesus. either himself to protect me or to take me home to his glory. He had to pray to himself, just didn't say a word audibly out loud. He just quiet, they surrounded him, in his heart he just looked to Jesus. I tried to keep working on at my desk or at my task. as if no one was near me. He just tried to keep going. In that moment, as never before, the words came to me. Listen what the Holy Spirit gave him. Whatsoever you ask in my name, I will do it. This is not name it and claim it, that's the truth of God's scripture. And I knew that I was safe. He's still surrounded, nothing's changed. God said, you ask me, I've got you. retiring a little from their first position. So now they pull back some, no word had been spoken yet. They took up the same attitude somewhat further off. So now they've moved back some and seem to be urging one another to fire the first shot. It says almost as though they were prompting each other. You shoot first. But my dear Lord restrained them once again and they withdrew, leaving me with a new reason for trusting him with all that concerned me for my time in eternity." God kept him. Pages, God kept him. He continued to ask the Lord. Nothing was too big. John G. Peyton, his life, his legacy, is about the legacy and the glory of God. He kept his servant. Our days, our steps, our lives, the victories, the triumphs, the answers to impossible needs and prayers come from him. There's nothing too big, saints. There's nothing too big. What about our second hesitancy? My situation is too late. It's too late. I think we feel this a lot. Something just seems like it's gone too far. Man, there's no such thing in God's plan. He can recover. He can change everything. How about Jesus coming to raise Lazarus from the dead? The whole theme is, why were you late? Isn't that what they were saying? Yeah, Jesus, if you'd have been here while our lives were still alive, what are they talking about? This is the Son of God. This is God in the flesh. But it's too late. It's not too late. You have needs. You have family members. You have grown children, whatever it is. You have great things, burdens that you have. It's not too late. Jesus comes into the scene, delaying on purpose, and He takes command of all of it. He enters into the emotion of it, He feels their agony, He enters into it, and then He triumphs to raise Lazarus from the dead. It's not too late with Him. Don't think, brothers and sisters, that it's gone too late. Nothing can be changed. Wherever it is, whatever your situation, God can do it. There is no thing of being too late as Hudson Taylor would remind us in multiple ways in his life. God can do more than we ask. That's part one. Just what we ask, what we come to him, what we express to him, what we set before him. I've told y'all before that sometimes with my older kids, when we tell stories or share, I will recount something when they were too little to remember and it begins to grip them. that God did something, answered something in a time in our life, and they've never heard about it. And they just realize dad or dad and mom asked God to do it, and he did it. Just believing him. Second, Paul goes further. Not just what you ask, but what you think. This is amazing. You're thinking, Paul, you're really stretching it now. what you think, what you imagine. That's what he's saying here. There's a difference. We have to all acknowledge there's a difference between what you might ask the living God for compared to what you might be thinking inside you. Y'all y'all begin to feel this a little bit. You understand what I'm trying to say? What you would ask. You have the courage, you have the, the willingness to ask God for these things. There are other things inside you. You're afraid to ask. They're too big. Jake, they're simply too big. And you're thinking, I'm not going to go to a Wednesday night prayer meeting and dive out there and ask these things. Should we ask God for 30,000 students in this campus to be saved? The answer is yes. 30,000. We're talking about a sweeping, you talk about cement city, I'm talking about the whole thing. This whole campus, I've seen it since I was this big. I've seen it my whole life, been around this campus my whole life. It's prime for God to move. The real moving of God's spirit. Is that too big? Did I scare you? Am I scaring myself? What we think, Paul's saying, yeah, he can do more than what you could even think that he could do. He could stop a football game mid-game and pour out his spirit. Saints, he can do anything. So what we think, you'll ask things within the realm of what's possible. I do that. I fail here or I get stuck here too. We ask within what's possible. God could do that. And I'm not trying to hurt any of your feelings, I'm being that honest. We just get stuck in these lists of things. It's not a grocery list we bring to our great God. We come to God for Him to exalt His glory and His power. But what about the things that you think? The things that you think. The other words that may come here. The Greek word, again, we would We could translate it in some different ways. It means to consider, ponder, something you might perceive. I'm talking about inside you, what you might perceive, something that you could imagine, some grand idea that you have inside you. Is this making sense? What you ask is what you'd verbalize, things that are earnest, things that you need. What you would imagine becomes really big, something that's so vast. You have those. I could look at any true Christian in this room and say, tell me something you never wanted to share with others. Have you asked God for this? And sometimes the saints will say, I have, and I never mentioned it, and then God did it. Things that you think about. Let me give an illustration. In my vocational career, we come up with concepts. I got to mention that this week, we rolled trace paper. I may lose you now. Just try to hang on with me. When you do with big ideas, you roll trace paper. You have maps or whatever, and you have stuff, and you begin to roll trace paper, and you have a series of markers, different size markers, almost like when somebody's gonna storyboard a movie. And they just begin to, they just draw simple ideas, and you begin to see it. It's very loose, very rough. So we'll roll trace paper. It's a fun step. I've always loved it. Because you're just testing ideas. And some people get scared. Whoa, so we'd be rolling trays and doing different ideas and then somebody will jump in and sketch a series of ideas and the whole team will just look at them and they'll go, we can't do that. You see where we're going here? Somebody on the team may be imagining something bigger than anybody in the room's even thought of and the natural instinct oftentimes is to say, we're not gonna be able to do that, that can't be done. late 90s, early 2000s, I was in a big conference room and it was a host of people, professionals, different ones in their fields, a lot of engineers. I love engineers, nobody take that as a cheap shot at all. They get a lot of things accomplished on the day-to-day. But they were in the room and so there's a certain way that everybody was thinking and this was about the big Trinity River project in Dallas and I can't help but mention this. What about big ideas there? I mean, they've spent decades trying to figure out what to do with that ditch, if you get right down to it. And so they're testing ideas. And so you've got like 11 people in the room and here's Phillip over here. And I said, well, what about maybe a series of water connections that maybe there's some water that works around victory and all that new development. It comes around. Eventually it discharges, goes back to the river, dah, dah, dah. It happens in cities all over the world. Don't want to scare anybody here. And you know, most of the room just turned and looked at me like, who invited him here? That's what I felt like. I was just imagining something that major cities in the history of the world have done that deal with commerce and they deal with land development or proximities and things and resources. Well, anyway, my point is when you imagine something big, God says you can't imagine something too big that I can't do. For the record, the next day one of the Major H and H, hydrology, hydraulic engineers, found me, came and saw me and said, Philip, it can be done. I said, thanks, Bert, for telling me that. I thought it could get done. It's just, the idea stretches what your hopes in God are for. The big things that are on your hearts. Saints, too often, you keep these grand thoughts, these grand hopes, and these imaginations inside you, and you don't go to God for them. We hold back. Paul is saying that we would grow in Christ, all these things he's praying for, and then he says, and then that God would exceed your greatest expectations or whatever you're asking or thinking about, that He would do that for you. Oh, brothers, sisters, I know that you have those in you, and you're thinking, boy, it'd be wonderful if these would come about, but you don't ask God for them. There's just not faith. There's just not any hope. There's not any expectation. He'll do it for you. Lloyd-Jones is right. We get caught in thinking, is Paul actually saying this is true for me? Those Ephesian Christians were like us. They were like us. They were born of the Holy Spirit. They were children of God. They were being taught and growing in grace and being purified in the Holy Spirit. And God was with them. And these are the things he said he would do for them. And he'll do it for us. A great God in and upon His people. You shouldn't hold back. You shouldn't hold back. None of us should. Don't you have dreams and hopes inside you? Do you have dreams and hopes? Again, I'm not talking about the last several decades of the charismatic crazy men, name it, claim it. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about hope in the living God and He does great things. Do you have those inside you? Hopes for your life, hopes for your children, hopes for your extended family, hopes for others. Look to God, give it to God, cry out to God, lay it before Him. He might blow you away this week. Yes, He might. Why do we set limits? Philip, why do you set limits? Zeke, why do we set limits? Alan, brethren, sisters, why do we set limits? It's not because he has any limit. That's right. It's little faith. We're asking him for more faith because he can do all things. God can do it. Lloyd-Jones said, we need to let our hearts and our minds soar with faith in what God will do. You hear that? That dear man from Maybe 60 years ago or however long ago, 70 years ago, when he said, we need to let our hearts and minds soar with faith in what God will do. Things that you think or you imagine. I just have spent this week just in awe of what God is saying here through Paul's writing. I'd be prone to say if I had heard it in the Ephesian reading, I would have said, stop, don't read anymore. Can you, I'd say, did you hear what he just said in that letter? Don't go on. I want to camp out right here. This brings me to our third hesitation that we have. The first was it's too big. Second was it's just too late. No, it's not too big for our great God and it's not too late. He can do anything. The third is. It's too complicated. It's just too complicated. I mean, you'll have somebody try to share with you. They're overwhelmed. And they stop and they say, I can't even express it all to you. It's just a wreck. It's a mess. Relationships or countless other situations. Things that have just fallen apart. It's too beyond repair. You can't fix any of it. It's too complicated. Is it really? I'm gonna close with a personal story, if I can hold it together. Is it too complicated for God? There's one thing I've learned in God's great mercy, reading biographies through the years, it's not too complicated for Him. It's not. Around nine or 10 years ago, we got a call late one night, and there had been a catastrophic injury to one of the family members. You're asleep, you get a call, it's like a dream. The situation is, to say the least, it's bleak. Care flight to the hospital, put on life support systems, the family scurrying or trying, some of the family trying to get to the hospital to maybe see or say some final words to that family member. The absolute proclamation beyond a doubt by the specialists, the hospital, all of them, He will die. That's what the prognosis was. In all the emotion of it, again, it's kind of the middle of the night, I begin to call my grown children. And I try to tell them, if you're gonna have anything left to say or do, you better do it now. That was that night into the morning. But he lived through the night, didn't die. Life support, still alive. The next day, still alive. Hey, wait a minute here. He's still alive. Completely unconscious, unconscious, completely there laying, waiting to die. Still no expectation. We're talking about even those who are now monitoring all the vitals, all the brain activity, whatever you want to say. No expectation to live. You get the scene. I'm about 10 minutes away at that time where I would be officing during the week. I'm about 10 minutes away from JPS hospital. And I begin to think, I'm going to use my lunch break to go over there. You had to go in, you had to have certain, only certain ones could go in and I'm going to go in and I'm going to be there and I'm going to see him and I'm just going to, just going to go. I didn't go every single day, but I had oftentimes I could go. Park, I got it down to a pattern. We're day four. We're at day seven. We're day 10. He's still alive. No consciousness. Stay with me here. I had heard somewhere in my younger years or somewhere that maybe your hearing is the last thing that you lose. Have you heard that before? Sometimes people can't respond or they'll come out of a coma and they'll say, oh yeah, I remember you talking to me. That has always stuck with me. I said, okay, I'm going to go. So I would go at lunch break and I would go and go in, I'd be by myself. They'd take me down the hall and I'd go in and I'd stand there. I wasn't there long. And I would talk. I would talk to him. I'm just a few feet away. He's there. And so I would talk and I would pray. And I would express love. And I have to admit children and all of you down inside me, I kept thinking God might let him live again. They'd written him off. Then it became this whole series of events. We're going to have to disconnect him. He can't stay on life support. And so I'm still, I was probably somewhat quiet in my hopes in this whole thing of what I thought or imagined God might do. I probably felt it inside, but I wasn't expressing it necessarily. I was, I was asking God to do a great miracle, but beloved, he was about to blow my mind. So the day came. They're going to unplug him. It's over. They unplug him. Everything's disconnected and he's living. I could go on. All the life support that men had were now no longer on him. God knows our days. I asked the Lord, Lord, would you let him live? Would you let him live? And God did. He lived. He began to recover. He began to grow strength, stronger. He went through a series of steps. It's not complicated for God. Nicholas is our nephew. Every Sunday, when I see him here, it reminds me, if that's the young man, I'd go to the hospital. God has our lives. He can do anything. It's nothing too hard for him. I respect specialists, but God's on the throne. And I was learning that, into that hospital, out. Things are getting better. He's beginning to respond. You just know Him as our nephew. But He's a living testimony that God reigns. Saints, anything that you can think or imagine, what you're struggling with, needs and agonies, He's able. He's able, He can blow it away, there's no limit. Quit holding on to it. God help us. Yes, God can do it. Dear brothers, dear sisters, God is with you. He's with us. If that in of itself ought to blow us away, we leave here today. Realize He's with us and you don't have anything that's too big, too complicated, too messy for Him. He can take it. He will take it. As Paul said, Paul's not overstating it. Paul's trying to get to the point where he can state it properly. God can do it. Lord, do it for your glory. Amen. Let me pray. Father, we need these truths. We need. this to us, our hearts, our minds, as Christians, as your people. You can do anything, whether it's in John G. Payton's days or Hudson Taylor or Peter in the prison, 5,000, 30,000 people needing to be fed, the woman with the son that had died, the funeral procession, Nick in the hospital, you can do it all. Lord, You reign. Increase our faith. Lord, help us to learn more how to ask and to bring the things that we think about to you. Lord, glorify your name. Glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Magnify your name here and in our lives and around us. Lord, we love you. We bless your great name. Amen.