Well, as we move into the sermon time, I want to offer a measure of appreciation for those of you who gathered together yesterday and decorated the sanctuary for Christmas. It's looking very, very festive. It's getting very, very appropriate for Christmas, which is soon coming, and I'm very thankful for those of you who gave your time to do that. However, it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Are any of you like me that you really don't want to get into Christmas until you've had Thanksgiving? I know that's a big issue. At least it is on social media, it seems. But for me, I like to celebrate Thanksgiving and then we get to Christmas. So, that's the first amen. All right, I didn't expect it, but there we go. So this morning, of course, we're gonna have a thanksgiving message. We've been singing songs of thankfulness, been singing songs of praise, of all that we have to be thankful to the Lord, so it seems right and appropriate for the sermon text for us to focus on being thankful to the Lord and being kind and being gracious. And so the passage before us is a very family-friendly, very wholesome text about demon possession. That was meant to be a joke. So the passage before us is Acts chapter 19, verses 11 through 20. One might wonder, if you have any familiarity with this text, what on earth are we doing continually going through the book of Acts, specifically here in chapter 19, where we have a story that seems to include everything prepared for a Hollywood movie. We have everything here. We have miraculous powers that are seemingly unexplainable. We have frauds trying to emulate that power. We have demon possession and demon exorcism. We even have a brutal, violent fight and nakedness. If that doesn't sound like the next Hollywood blockbuster, I don't know what is. This story has everything that you would not expect for a Thanksgiving sermon. And yet, what we're going to see here, as the title of the sermon suggests, is that power is found and surrender. What we're going to be talking about this morning is not really so much demon possession, though it's certainly part of the story, and we'll deal with it for a little bit. It's really not about, wow, how was Paul able to do these things, or if Paul had some miraculous abilities. Really, what we're going to be focusing on is where is power in this life? Where does power come from? And for you and for me, we're going to not allegorize ourselves into the story, but we're going to see what happens when we're in a similar situation. What happens when we desire to have the power in our lives because we're going through something that's unexplainable, or we don't know what to do, and we're going to have to ask ourselves, where does the power in our lives come from? What is the hope for us when we come against the great trials of life? So that's what we're going to be talking about here in Acts chapter 19, verses 11 through 20. The title of the sermon, again, is Power and Surrender. Hopefully you've had a chance to find this passage in your own Bibles. Will you follow along as I read our text to us this morning? This is what Luke tells us. Starting in verse 11, God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out. But also some of the Jewish exorcists who went from place to place attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying these words, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. Verse 14, seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, I recognize Jesus, I know about Paul, but who are you? And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone. And they counted up the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. Father, as we come to such a strange, seemingly obscure text, it's likely for many of us, we're wondering what on earth does this have to do with me today in the 21st century? Will you help us to submit to you? Will you help us to submit to your word? As we prayed earlier, will you take away distractions that are within or without? Will you help us to focus rightly on what the Word of God is saying to us, and will you help us to apply it to our lives? Father, may we be a changed people when we leave this place, not because of how good a person speaks, but instead by how good the Word of God is. Father, may you be glorified and magnified this morning in your name, amen. The first main point that we're gonna see here in this text, if you got the notes, especially for the kids, but if you grabbed them on the way in, is a false sense of power. That's what we're going to see here beginning in our text, a false sense of power. And as we prepare to consider the strangeness of this text, we need to be very clear in understanding the biblical situation of reality as we prepare to enter into this text. a common theme that runs throughout all of scripture, it's in the Old Testament, and it's certainly in the New Testament, and we need to understand rightly reality, which is to say that right now, there is a cosmic battle that is going on, that has been going on for a long, long time. The greatest battle, the greatest war that this world has ever known was not the world wars of the 20th century. The greatest war that this world has ever known is a cosmic spiritual warfare between God and his enemies, against Satan and against God, and then against God's people and against those who are following Satan. Consider what Paul would say in Ephesians 6, verse 12, and I think all of this gives a light into our text that we're considering this morning. Paul would say later in Ephesians, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood. That's amazing because you and I have situations and arguments and fights with humans, and it's easy for us to think, well, no, no, I'm not getting along with X, Y, or Z. But Paul helps us to see our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. For those of you familiar with C.S. Lewis, particularly his work, The Screwtape Letters, it's a fictitious work of a demon who's teaching another demon how to practically fight against God and God's people in even the most mundane things. like a cat interrupting somebody as they're trying to do something for the Lord. The idea here is that we have to understand reality is not just what we are able to see here, but there is a greater battle happening right now in the spiritual realms. Do you understand that? That's vital for us to see, because when Jesus came here, that battle was raging, and he was still in the fight, and he was going to win it with what he accomplished. There is a spiritual battle happening. And so now taking that, this grand spiritual battle happening in the spiritual realms, now we can consider, I think, what happens here in our text this morning. Notice what Luke does. If you've been with us throughout the book of Acts, especially if you were with us last week, you remember that last week we saw the gospel change some hearts and not change other hearts. Well, we see that a shift happens here starting in verse 11. We see that Luke is going to show us now a practical display of God's power. Notice what happens in verse 11, a rather strange and obscure thing, that God starts performing amazing miracles, the word to us in verse 11, through the hands of Paul. What does that look like? Verse 12 tells us that handkerchiefs and aprons that have just touched Paul, all of a sudden, if they're carried to somebody else, will heal somebody from whatever is happening in their lives. Now, let's not brush past that too quickly. Let's just say, that's amazing, right? It's amazing to me how Luke just kind of brushes by this, and he wants to get to something else, not seemingly giving a whole lot of attention to, I've never seen anything close to that. The only saving that I've seen an apron do is save somebody from the spaghetti sauce splatter. I've never seen anyone being saved by just a handkerchief or an apron touch them. And yet, for Luke, he's wanting to get past this because he's wanting to show us something more significant. Notice this story that we see happening in verses 13 and 14. The power of God is so extraordinarily visibly seen and demonstrated to others that people take note. Verse 13, we're told that there are Jewish exorcists. We don't know a whole lot about this group of people, but it seems that they had some type of possible power, or at least people thought they had power. They went from town to town, obviously making a profit from what they were doing, and we see that they noticed the power of God through Paul. They want it. And we're told in verse 14, there's a specific group of these people called the Seven Sons of Sceva. And we can impose what is said in verse 13 as what the Seven Sons of Sceva say in verse 14, which is to say that they say, I adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches. Okay, so what's going on here? Who are these people? What are they saying? Why are they saying it? But we don't know a whole lot about this man named Sceva, or his seven sons, other than what's told to us in the text. Sceva is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, but what we are told about him in verse 14, I think is pretty important. Notice that this man, Sceva, is a Jewish chief priest. That's not insignificant. These are not seven random Israelite men. They're not seven random Jewish men. These are seven men who have grown up in the temple, learning the Pentateuch, memorizing scripture, and yet, check this out, they completely miss the power of God. Let me put it this way. These are deeply religious people, hear this now, who don't know God. That should be powerful to us. Religious people who don't know God. And if you've been with us on Sunday nights as we've been going through the Pentateuch seeing Jesus and Numbers and Leviticus, this should conjure up some memories of some Old Testament people. You should be able to remember from Leviticus, Aaron had sons, sons of the high priest called Nadab and Abihu. And if you remember about those sons, they offered up strange fire to the Lord. They were religious, but they didn't know God, and what was the result of that? They were killed. You can remember from 1 Samuel 2, Eli, who was the priest. You can remember Hannah, who ended up having Samuel. You can remember that Eli had two sons. These two sons did not know the Lord and sinned greatly. They were religious, but they were sinful, and because of that, they were put to death. Now we have seven sons of Sceva here at Acts chapter 19. They're religious, they know about God, they think they know God, and yet we're going to see they really think that they have the answers instead of God. But what of what they say? In verse 13, I think we can say that this is what the seven sins of Scebus say. They say to these evil spirits, to the demon-possessed, I adjure you or I beseech you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches. Do you hear how impersonal that is? It's not, I beseech you, I call you out by the King Jesus over my life. It's, hey, you remember that name that Paul was using? That's the name that I'm going to use. We certainly see here not any sort of personal relationship with Jesus, but instead, just using his name to try to finish something. What's the answer that they're given in verse 15? It's almost humorous, it's slightly chilling, and it's unsettling. The evil spirit answered them. Remember, they've tried to cast out this demon, right? And the evil spirit, through the demon-possessed man, says, I recognize Jesus. That's amazing, he knows who Jesus is. I know about Paul, I know who that Paul guy is, but who are you? It's funny, it's scary, it's strange. Who are you guys? I don't recognize the power that I recognize in Jesus and Paul. You don't have it. And what's the culmination or what's the result of now these seven sons of Sheba thinking that they have the power, trying to enact that power, then being exposed to not have the power? Verse 16 tells us that strange account that probably a lot of kids, teenagers, and maybe even adults who weren't paying attention said, wait a second, did the Bible say somebody was naked and beat up? Yes, that's verse 16. These seven sons of Sceva, they obviously are no match. Notice the word, they are overpowered by the demons, by this demon here. So they flee out of the house naked, wounded. more or less to say, they're like scared little children and they're getting as far away as they can. May it never be that the Bible is not applicable. This is an amazing reality of what happened at a time in history. Maybe perhaps you've been in a fight in your day, maybe you've seen fights in your day, but I dare say you probably haven't seen what happened here in verse 16. This is an amazing account of people trying to accomplish something that have no business accomplishing it and a terrible result happening. So let me give you six thoughts, six thoughts of what I see happening here and some things that we need to see about this in application to our lives. Six thoughts about what's happening here at the Sons of Sceva. First, something that we need to see from this text is that God has always been in the business of healing for His glory. God has always been in the business of healing for his glory. Now, much more could be said about this than what we're going to talk about, but God still accomplishes miracles. And I'm not trying to be a spiritualist, I'm not trying to be an irrationalist, but we have to understand that God still accomplishes miracles. Let me clarify what I'm not saying when I say that. I'm not saying that you going to the mall and a parking spot opening up during the busy Christmas season is a miracle. That's not the type of miracles that I'm talking about. The type of miracles that I'm talking about is there is no other explanation, there is no other way something could have happened, whether it's in a healing of somebody or a situation being resolved, there's no answer for it other than God was providentially working. God does that. And if you're a Christian, you should believe that. Because think of your own salvation. There is no greater miracle that I have ever witnessed than God taking a former enemy against God. That's me, somebody who was angry against God, who desired things for myself, and made me into a child of Him, who loved somebody who was unlovable. That is the greatest miracle of all that's happened in my life. Has that happened in your life? God's in the business of miraculously doing things that when we step back, we say, oh my goodness, it wasn't me, it wasn't them, it was God. He's done this in our salvation, if nothing else. There's a second thought that we can see here. Not only is God in the business of miracles and healings for his sake, for his glory, but we see that demon possession is real and terrifying. Demon possession is real and terrifying. Throughout the Gospels, it doesn't take long, if you're reading Mark, if you're reading Matthew, if you're reading John, you will quickly see Jesus interacting with those who are possessed with demons. We see through these demon possessions, these are people who are always adverse to the truth, they're always combative to correction, and they love that which God has commanded not to love. Now again, much more could be said on this, and it's not the ultimate topic of our sermon here this morning, but let me just say this, and then just kind of give a few qualifying things, and then we'll move on. Demons are still active in the world here today. Now, I'm not saying that you need to go around and say, that person's demon-possessed because they don't like you, or don't think that you need to try to kick a demon out of somebody, or even to think that somebody on TV is doing that. That's not what I'm saying. But what I am saying is that Satan is not sitting back, twiddling his thumbs, waiting for the final judgment. Satan is actively working in this world. If you don't believe that, read 1 Peter, where he's talked about being a roaring lion, prowling around seeking to devour, to kill, to destroy. Demons are certainly the ones that he uses to be a part of this. I don't say this to make you fearful. In fact, if you're a Christian, you ought not to be fearful of this. But we ought to be realistic. that if you are in Christ, you will never be demon-possessed. But if you are not in Christ, if you are an unbeliever, there is always a possibility of demon influence working in your life against the Lord. After all, according to Jesus, to the Pharisees, you're a son of the devil, you're a daughter of the devil. Now, what about a Christian who says this? And I'm thinking especially of kids or teenagers who think, my goodness, I don't like hearing about demons and that's scary for me. Parents, how do we encourage our children with this reality? We encourage our children with this reality that even though demon possession is real and terrifying, that we know who is the victor over all things. We know the end of history, what is going to happen, and that is Jesus is king, and nothing will happen outside of God's providential plan. How do we encourage when fear of demon possession happens? We say, if I know God, I trust God, and God will never fail me, never. But demon possession is real. The third thought for us to see here is that spiritual battle plays out in the physical realm. I won't say much of this because I think it's self-explanatory from verse 16. I don't think that any honest reader could read verse 16 and say, this was only a spiritual difficulty. I think you could ask the sons of Sceva and say, hey, were you only spiritually assaulted? They would say, no, did you see us run out of there? We didn't have clothes on. We were wounded. We were getting out of there as fast as we could. Why? Because there's a physical reality to the spiritual battles. Friends, the spiritual battles play out in the physical realm. If you don't believe that, have you considered the book of Job? Yes, what happens in the spiritual realm plays out in the physical battle. So therefore, let's not be naive. Fourthly, a fourth thought. Fearing God is not enough. Fearing God is not enough, and this and the next one, I'm almost kind of trying to make it sound controversial, just in the sense that we'll be thinking rightly through this. Isn't it amazing what this demon-possessed man, the demon within him, says to the sons of Sceva in verse 15? There's a note of fear in verse 15, isn't it? I know about Jesus, I recognize Jesus. That's a fear, right? He's essentially saying, if Jesus were here, I would be scared. I even know about Paul. If Paul were doing this, I would be scared, but then he can more confidently say, but who are you? That's kind of the down thing that people will say if you're wanting to make someone feel insignificant, be like, hey, I know about this person, but who are you? I don't even know you. That's a put down. It's meant to be, I'm not scared of you. I'm not afraid of you. But the adverse of that, the flip side of that is, they were afraid of God. Think about that. The demon was afraid of God and then Paul who submitted to God, which I think this pairs well with what we see in James 2, verse 19, a passage that you no doubt know. He says, you believe that God is one, you do well, but then notice this, the demons also believe and shudder. That's amazing. What is he saying here? He's saying it's not enough to fear God. In fact, we could even put it this way. It's not only enough to believe in God. If belief means to acknowledge God is real, to acknowledge that what the Bible says about him is real, to acknowledge that God is doing things in the world, to acknowledge that Jesus did die on a cross, none of that will give you salvation. Salvation only comes when God changes your heart, which then makes you not only believe that it happened, but that it happened for you. That your sins were what put Jesus on the cross, and those sins are forgiven. It's not enough to fear God. The entire world could fear the power of God, and they will not be saved. It's only the ones that God works miraculously in, changing the heart to believe, repent, and to follow. Are you tracking with what I'm saying there? Even the demons fear. So fearing is not enough. There must be fear in your heart to God, but that's not enough. Now let me say this fifth thought, because this is going to sound even more controversial, intentionally so. This is, power is not in the name of Jesus Christ. Power is not merely in the name of Jesus Christ. Again, this is intentionally controversial sounding, because I want us to think clearly about what's being said here. No doubt, if you know your Bible, you think, now wait a second, pastor. I know that Acts 4.12, for instance, talks about salvation being in the name of Jesus Christ. There's no other name outside of heaven on earth that we must be saved except for Jesus Christ. So you say, you know, there is power in the name of Jesus Christ. And we would say, absolutely. If by that you mean that salvation comes in no other way than trusting, believing, submitting to, repenting, and following Jesus Christ, and only Jesus Christ alone. If that's what you mean by power being in the name of Jesus Christ, then we all readily agree to that. But we must readily reject any notion that says, if I use the name of Jesus, then that makes everything right. If I use the name of Jesus, then it's this miracle word that all of a sudden makes things that I'm doing seem better. Maybe it rinses my actions or my thoughts, and if I ascribe the name Jesus to it, then it'll cleanse it and make it right and good. Let me give you an example here of how silly that would seem, and this is a ridiculous example. But many of you know that for my 30th birthday, Sadie gave me something that I'd been wanting to do for a long time. She bought me, out of love, not out of a desire to see me fall out of a plane, she bought me a skydiving package, so I was able to go skydiving, which means I jumped out of a plane, more like I just fell out of a plane, and a guy was on my back, and he told me when to pull the cord, and we made it to the bottom, and it was fantastic. But I want you to think how ridiculous it would be if while we're in the plane and the hatch is open and we're looking out, as we're a couple thousand feet up or so, and I were to tell him, hey, you know what? Just take the parachute off. In the name of Jesus, I'm going to jump and survive. One, he wouldn't do that, otherwise he would not be a skydiving instructor. And two, how better do you think my chances would be by saying the name of Jesus, how would that help my survival? It wouldn't be any good. It wouldn't do any difference, right? God would not help me survive something that's so ridiculous just merely because I've said the name of Jesus. And this herein lies the point. Friends, if your Christianity is merely invoking the name of Jesus because you know that's what you ought to do, because you know that it sounds good, and you're a religious person, but your heart hasn't been changed by the power of Jesus Christ, then it means nothing. If you just say, well, I'm doing this in the name of Jesus, but then yet what you're doing has the footprints of your desires and your preferences and has nothing to do with glorifying Jesus, then what are we doing? Just saying the name of Jesus doesn't make things right. Invoking the name of Jesus doesn't make things godly. It's only when the power of God has changed the hearts of God's people that that's when the power of God works and applies in his people and in the communities that we're in. No, there is not power merely in the name of Jesus. It's power when God has done miraculous things in the hearts of people. This leads to a sixth thought. to conclude this first point, and that is true power is only in submission to Christ. And this is where I want the remainder of our time together to go with. True power is only in submission to Christ. I once talked to a person, a person that I love dearly, means a lot to me, and I used this word submission to this person, and they said, oh, I hate that word submission. I was using it in a biblical sense. How sad is it that when we think of submission, we think of being lesser than? We think of being put under instead of actually being empowered by what God is doing. True power is in submission to Christ. From this story, what we need to see here is what did these seven sons of Sceva get wrong? They thought they could do it. They thought the power came from themselves. They thought, by their own figuring out, by their own working through, by the way that they could say something or work something out, that they could accomplish something that only God could accomplish. And friends, this is what you and I must see, that power only comes in your life and my life. Please hear this, because it's going to be important when we apply this in a moment. True power in your life is not by you figuring things out, but it's through submitting to God's power. That's not easy to do in times of trial. That's not easy to do in the nights of darkness. That's not easy to do when things aren't going your way. But if you desire the power of God as a child of God, you must submit only to God. In fact, we see this here in verse 11. I brushed by it pretty quickly, but I wanna go back to it now because we see the power of God exploding through this text. Notice how in verse 11, this is what my translation says, this is what's on the slide, likely your translation says something very similar to what I'm about to read. My translation says, God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hand of Paul. Now, that's a good translation, I don't think it's the best translation here. Because I think a better translation would to be this. God was performing extraordinary powers The word there is power. In fact, I normally don't give you Greek words, but the Greek word here that is often translated as miracle, I'm saying it should be power. The Greek word here is dunamis, which you should be able to make that connection from dunamis to dynamite. The idea here is, is that through the power of God, he is exploding into the lives of people, and so they're going to see the power of God juxtaposed with the power, the perceived power of man, and what's gonna be the result? What is going to happen when people see the power of God and the power of man? Who's going to win out in the hearts of man? And this is the second main point, the remainder of our text, and that is the purpose of God's power. What is the power of verse 11 that is showing people, proving to people this is not a work of man, but this is a work of God? What does this accomplish? For what purpose is God doing all of this? What is the purpose of a strange story of a demon-possessed man beating up other people? What is the purpose of all this, pastor? of this entire story, of what God is teaching us through these exorcisms and through this power over demonic possession, is that true power of God would unmistakably bring many sons to glory. The whole point of all of this story is the salvation of unbelievers. That's what Luke is getting at. He's wanting to show us the power of God that breaks the heart of sinful men to bring people to salvation. Notice how counter-cultural, how deeply practical the narrative is in verse 17. Notice how we're told, this became known to all. What? What is the this? What is that pronoun referring to? Well, he's referring not only to the failures of the sons of Sceva, but back to verse 11, the power of God. So these people that he's gonna be talking about here in verse 17 in Ephesus, they saw the power of God, they saw the failure of the sons of Sceva, and they saw that and they couldn't forget it. It became known to all people, to both Jews and Greeks, didn't matter. who lived in Ephesus, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was being magnified." Do you see how absolutely essential this is? That when they saw the power of God, they had no other recourse, no other response than to get on their face and say, if that's the one true God, And if my sin has separated me from that God, then I must confess my sins, I must repent, and I must believe in Him. Isn't that amazing that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ was being magnified when just a few verses prior, the name of Jesus was being drug through the mud, as though it was some sort of incantation. It's amazing here. The name of Jesus, we said in a moment ago, it didn't have the power if you're just saying it to say it, but it has all the power when you're convicted by the Holy Spirit. That's what's happening with these people. They are fearing God. They are then convicted of their sins, as we're gonna see here in a moment. The name of the Lord Jesus Christ was changing their hearts and changing their lives. I wonder, what about for us? Have you experienced and seen the power of God so greatly, and I'm not just talking about a big snowstorm or seeing a tornado from far off, but have you actually seen and experienced the power of God within your life that you have no other response than to say, oh my goodness, it's not about my power or about other people's abilities, it's about God? Everything in this life, it's not about me, it's about God. It's not about what I can do, it's about what God has done. It's not about my abilities, it's about what Jesus has accomplished. Have you ever gotten to the place where you've been stripped of yourself? You've fallen on your face and say, oh my goodness, I have no other hope than Jesus Christ. Has that happened to you, dear friend? I'm not talking about emotionalism, I'm not talking about crying until your eyes are sore, but I'm talking about realizing it's not about me, but it's about my God. Has that ever happened? Has that ever happened? These hearts are changed in verse 17, but it doesn't stop there in verses 18 and 19. The hearts are changed, their lives change. This is a powerful text. Verse 18, many also of those who had believed kept coming. So again, how do we understand what happened in verse 17? Verse 18 says they believed, they believed, but they didn't stop there, confessing and disclosing their practices. You see, they saw the failure of the sin that they had been engaged in, and they confessed it, they disclosed it. Notice, many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them. and the sight of everyone, and they counted up the price of them and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver. The idea here is it's so much. It wasn't meant to be an exact amount. The idea here is they burned so much of what they had given their lives to that it cost them so much money it was incalculable. Here's what Luke is telling us. These Ephesians had committed their lives to what they thought was best. They had committed their lives to the things that they enjoyed. They devoted their lives to power in themselves. And when their heart was changed, what also followed by necessity? Their lives. Their lives changed. everything that they once held dear. It's about me, it's about my power, my preferences, the things that I enjoy. They all threw it literally in the garbage can and lit a fire and said, no more. They didn't try to sell these books, they didn't try to recoup money, they said, we want none of it. Has that ever happened in your life? Have you ever been so convicted of things that seemed as though they were okay? Things that seemed like they were fine, and yet, when you were convicted, you did everything necessary to get rid of it. Friends, let's be really honest with ourselves. We talk about being saved. We talk about how Jesus has changed our lives. But when we get to the nitty-gritty of our hidden lives and our secret sins, we realize that we actually flirt with sin. We try to accept sin. We try to say, it's okay to do sin in this capacity or in this way, as long as other people don't see it. If my kids don't see it, I'm okay. If my parents don't see it, I'm okay. If people in church don't see it, I'm okay. It's different because I'm this way. I wonder, what about the entirety of our lives? Is your heart changed? If so, does your life change? Verse 20 is the capstone to put this all together. When the Word of God is going out through the power of God, it will not be stopped. The Word of God, which Paul was preaching, he was accomplishing in Ephesus, it was not going to be stopped by anyone or anything. The power of God will continue on. Nothing will stop it. That's what verse 20 is telling us. It continued mightily, and it prevailed. But Luke, what did the Word of God prevail against? What was it at war against? Remember Ephesians chapter six? The Word of God prevailed against the stone, cold, sinful hearts that Satan had enraptured against God. That's the power of God. It works in softening and breaking and molding God's people together. Has your heart been broken? Has your heart been broken by the power of God? Let me end with one final application. I want to be sensitive that for maybe some of us, as we're thinking through these things that we've talked about together, you might be wondering, Pastor, I appreciate all of the explanation that you've given. I still don't know how this applies to my life, though. How does this apply for me today? After all, this is Thanksgiving week. I'm going to be going and eating way too much at family gatherings. How does this have application for my life? How do I understand this? If you're wondering how this applies to your life, then this is the application I want to leave with you. It's very simple. If you're a Christian, if you're in Christ, don't settle for forgery. Don't settle for forgery. Something strange has happened in our churches. We have hearts and people who fill our churches, who talk about the power of God and bringing them to salvation. We talk about God's power in bridging the gap between the sinfulness of man and the holy perfection of God. We sing songs of praise that we were sinners, and yet the powerful mercies of God saved a wretch like me. And we sing and we talk about these things, and then yet something very strange happens, and this is what it is. Life happens. Jobs are lost. Relationships are broken. Investments are lost. Sin is committed. We get hurt. We get sick. We get discontent. We don't like our families anymore. We're not satisfied with the spouse God has provided us for. We're no longer happy because life didn't turn out the way we wanted to. And when all of these things happen of discontentment, uncertainty, trial, temptation, and so forth, our theology that we talk about in church, that we say absolutely the power of God is enough, all of a sudden that theology goes out the window. And what is our response? Well, I've got to fix this situation. I have got to figure this out. Instead of giving all of our problems to the Lord, instead of entrusting ourselves to Christ, we become just like the sons of Sceva. We put the power on our shoulders that was never meant to be there, We do our very best to try to fix something. We get into this idea of pridefully assuming and arrogantly believing that we have the abilities, or we're on the opposite end, that we get motivated to this inactivity because we get worried, we get anxious, and we don't do anything. We've put power on our shoulders that was never meant to be there. I wonder, For any of us who are in Christ, are we just like the sons of Sceva, that we've been beat up in life? Have you come in here this morning and you feel overpowered because this past week you've been giving your very best effort, trying your very hardest, and it's never enough? Have you felt stripped of your joy and your hope in this life? And you are bewildered because you say, but I've tried. I've done my very best. Pastor, I've tried my very hardest, and yet nothing's working out. Of course, the answer is very easy. It's never going to work out if that's it. If your life is only about your very best, your very best will always fall short. The sons of Sceva didn't fail because they didn't try hard. They failed because they didn't realize that by submitting to Christ, that's where true power is. And let me just say this. I've said this individually. May I say this to a church, to our church now? Is it possible that we as a church, at times, have been like the sons of Sceva? We're going to do things our way. We're going to do things what we think is best. Instead of going to the Word of God and making decisions, we go to the best thinking of man. Well, I think that this would be well. I think this would go well. I think this would bring people in. Instead of saying, yes, yes, but what does the Word of God say? The Word of God says something very simple, and it's what I wanna close with in 2 Corinthians 12. No doubt you know this passage. It's a very powerful passage, and I've read this scripture to more than one person as they're either on their deathbed or close to it. This is what Jesus said to Paul, and then what Paul responded. He said, and Jesus has said to me, my grace, is sufficient for you. Check this out. Jesus is saying this. For power is perfected in weakness. Paul then says, Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell within me. Do you hear how weakness is not an absence of power? Submission and surrender is not an absence of power. It is the means by which God brings the power to his people. which is why this is how Paul would end it in verse 10. For when I am weak, then I am what? Then I'm strong. You know that verse. You don't need it on the screen. You know it because you know it's true. You might feel weak right now, Christian. It might be for a variety of reasons, but is it possible you feel weak because you've added worry to your life? You've tried to fix things in your life. You have concern in your life about even maybe this Thanksgiving week. Oh, but what if this happens? Oh, no, but what if this happens? I've got to fix it. I've got to work. I've got to connive. Rest. Rest in the goodness of God. Don't put things on your shoulders that God never meant for your shoulders to carry. God is sufficient. He is enough and Christian for you. The call of Christian faithfulness is to say, it's not about me, it's all about you. So let's rest, let's hope, and let's have joy in the power of God and submitting to that power in our daily lives. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that your word speaks to us Thank you that we have cause to rejoice in knowing that even and especially when we fail, you never fail. That your power was demonstrated in the first century in miraculous ways and it's still being demonstrated today. Father, will your power continue to work in my heart? exposing and bringing my sin to the forefront so that I might confess my sin daily to you and that I might submit and surrender my life more and more to you. Father, may that be the heart cry of this church. May we honestly come before you saying, Lord, not our will, but your will be done. And Father, may we glory in being weak so that others might see the strength of our Lord and Savior. Father, as we enter into this Thanksgiving week, may we rejoice and be thankful that it's not about us, but it's all about you. Father, thank you for your goodness to us in your name. Amen.