You're listening to audio from Ascend Church. For more information about Ascend or to access more gospel-centered tools to grow as a disciple of Christ, visit ascendkc.org. So today, I have the pleasure again of speaking on a topic that is near and dear to my heart over the last couple of years, because I'm going to be speaking about the incredible power of God. And I think why it's become near and dear to my heart is that with kind of my background, I grew up in a more fundamental setting, a setting where it's very much geared to God's Word. I'm so thankful for that and how that just was implanted into my life, into my heart. But one thing that I struggled with was this topic, the power of God. And the reason I struggle with it so much is it's not so much that I didn't know that God was powerful. It was like, oh God, you're like this little guy, you can't do much. No, I knew God was powerful. I knew the concept of it, but I just didn't know. the details, how it worked out, how he's working now, and because it felt very much that as we consider this, God is like, all right, Lord, you saved me, and now I gotta do it on my own. And over the years, I've just been becoming more and more aware that to live the Christian life, it takes the power of God. And so I don't know where you are today. You might come from different backgrounds, different wrestlers, and this thing is close, because if you go out and do a search and go onto websites and learn from other churches, you will see a lot of different positions on the color of how we address the power of God and how we live in the power of God. And so hopefully today what I do is one to bring some clarity to that subject, because this can become hazy for us. It also becomes hazy because life is hard. And that when you get into, you see evil prevailing the world, you often deal with questions, or I've received questions like, why does God permit suffering? Why are some of these things happening if he's so powerful? And so this question is to wrestle with, but at the same time, we have to be ready for that. So I hope we can be prepared for that. But then the other thing is, is that you all say here, I don't think that you went through this week and didn't have a point of tiredness, that you didn't feel incapable of actually putting what God has called you into your life because it seemed hard. It also becomes because you still see sin pop up in your life. You see the struggle, it's a real struggle, right? And you're expecting, God, just take this away from me. Why does it continue to happen? And so for us, we often can become discouraged and it all becomes really an impractical theology in our life because we don't understand how it actually works in our life. So what I'm hoping today as we go through this topic is I hope that I get to bring some clarity and also help you take some practical steps in this understanding of the power of God. And so you can see the big idea. It's the immensity of God's power is perfectly and sufficiently present in your life for your endurance and obedience. And so this is more of a topical message today. So we're gonna be jumping around in a couple different places. The first place we're gonna go is Ephesians 1, and that's if you don't have a Bible with you, there's a Bible in front of you, and it's gonna be on page 976. If you're a visitor with us and you don't have a Bible at home, please take this as a gift from our church, because this is one thing that you have to study in your life to get an understanding of who God is, how he works, and what we're called to do. But what I hope to do in this topical message is that we're gonna be going through three major passages. So I just wanna set up expectations. As an expository preaching church, you are going to be used to dwelling in those passages, just taking every part of that passage apart, learning about it, and then thinking about all the intricacies of how that applies to your life. Well today, we're doing an expository exegetical approach, but it's gonna look a little bit different. Because if I was to say here, we're gonna go through these three passages exhaustively, we're gonna be here a while. If you wanna stay, I mean, I'm more than happy to go till four o'clock today, maybe even into tomorrow, so if you're all good with that, no, okay. But this is what I'm gonna do is I do wanna highlight the different parts of the certain passages, not to take the passage out of context, it's to teach that portion of the passage within the context as best as we could as we consider this topic of God's power. The second thing is that you're not gonna have an exhaustive teaching on God's power. Like the book that I hold in the hand, this all is a testament to God's power. And even as we talk, we're gonna talk about just how Paul describes God's power, and what you'll find is there's so much more to know. So much more to learn. I have degrees, many degrees in Christian studies, and I still wrestle with the immensity of what this topic is. And so again, you're gonna do a lifelong search, a lifelong study to really understand God's power. And so what I hope to do is just give you kind of an appetizer, a taste of it, so that you can get some maybe clarity, Think about how that actually works in your life, but then you're going to have to go and learn more. And so I just want to set those expectations so that you are not disappointed. And so we also get out before lunch. All right. All right. To start with, as we understand God's powers, we have to see the magnificence of God's power. And so we're going to look at Ephesians 1, 16 through 23. But before we do that, I just want to pray over our time as we tackle this subject. Father, I'm just thankful that I get to come, that I've had the opportunity to study, and I've had the opportunity of just the experience of how you brought that to light over the years, and that, Father, that even for myself, that to consider your power, I just know that as a weak vessel, as a finite vessel, that I'm still trying to comprehend the immensity of what this, your power is. And yet, Father, I sit here, and I get the opportunity to declare, declare your truth, declare your, And so I pray that you would help me have the clarity of mind, the words to say, and then I pray for everyone here, that everybody would walk away here encouraged, excited about the power that you have at work within them, and that, Father, that they would take these steps of faith and live for you. So I pray you bless our time and bless this opportunity to listen to your word. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. All right, so the first passage we are looking at is gonna start in Ephesians 1, verse 16. And it says, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory. may give you the spirit of wisdom, and of revelation, and the knowledge of Him. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great mind. that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. And so you can see, as we move into this passage, there's so many things to take away, so many things to dive in, so many things to study. But again, we're just gonna highlight a few of them. And the first thing I wanna highlight is the purpose of Paul's prayer. Because the purpose is seen in the very beginning when he says, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know. And so what he's trying to do is he's going to point out three specific things that he wants us to understand. Because these concepts are hard. These concepts have a lot of meat. And so we need his help. We need God's help to actually understand these things. The other part of it is the fact is they're present. And I think as we tackle this, is this is not something that's to come. It's not something we experienced in the past. No, it's something that we're experiencing presently. So when you look, you see there's three what's. These three what's are really what Paul wants us to know about. He says, what is the hope to which he has called you? What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And by the way, study those. We don't have time to unpack, study those. And you can read the rest of Ephesians and you'll get glimpses and a greater understanding of those. But the one we're gonna focus on is the third one. And he said, what is the immeasurable greatness of his power? And you notice, look at those descriptions. Look at those adjectives. He uses immeasurable. And really by using immeasurable, he's really communicating the extent, the vastness of his power. What we can understand is when we see that immeasurable, it's overflowing. It's super abundant. God doesn't have a power where he doesn't go beyond what we can think, comprehend. He has infinite power. The next description is greatness. I love the Greek words, megathos. Megathos, like what great Greek word to describe great. They use this to describe it. And it's really this quality of exceeding a standard involving physical magnitude. So think about the most powerful thing that you have seen or heard about, like volcano erupting, earthquake happening, tornado, whatever it may be. God's power goes way beyond that. It's way more intense. It's way greater. And it's a magnificent quality. But then they gave him for the word power, dunamis. And dunamis is, you know, often what you'll hear from maybe other teachers, they talk about it's like dynamite, but it's dynamite for the power, but it's not an explosion, destructive power. It's actually a functional power. It's kind of electricity. It's powerful, but it has a purpose. It has a function. And so when we consider God's power, he has purpose behind it. It's working. And it's coming from his great might, strength beyond all comparison. God does not get weak. God does not get tired. He's consistent. He has the strength all the time. And it's most evident when he resurrected Christ from the dead, when we consider the power of the resurrection. that we would consider that Christ, on the cross, took on the sins, and you understand the beating he took. You start to study, you see the thorns, the afflictions that were done to his flesh, but then also the fact that the wrath of God came down upon him. And then he died, buried for three days, and then rose. The hope of our salvation, he rose from the grave. I don't know about you, But in my lifetime, I have yet to see somebody die, be buried for three days, and then come back up. It takes incredible power for that truth to occur, and it did. And so we can look and we can say, man, these are amazing things, and they are. And what it points to is that God is omnipotent. Have you ever heard that word? Omnipotent. Omnipotent, the definition's gonna be behind me. It says, it means that God has infinite power, giving him the capacity and capability to do all he wants to do. Get that? Infinite power. There is nothing that constrains God. He has power beyond all measure than we ever can understand. And it gives him the capacity and capability To do what? To do all that He wants to do. You see, His character influences the way He uses His power. And so He's not a cosmic Santa Claus, but He's a God who does what He wants to do for His glory and for the good of the ones who love Him. And so he's consistent with his nature and his power is truly unstoppable. It's immovable. We can't do anything to thwart the power that doesn't mean how Satan, he's powerful, he's not even close. Not even close to who God is and his power. The world, the rulers of this world, they don't have close to the power that he has. And so when we consider that, it's that really what Paul is trying to do with all these descriptions, he's really trying to paint us a picture. And oftentimes, for me, things that I like to do is I truly like vacations. And when I come back from vacations, like most of us, we try to have conversations and paint pictures for people, right? And so one of those things that I love, and there's gonna be a photo behind me, is this place called Lake Verna, Colorado. And you probably haven't heard of it, even if you've been to Rocky Mountain National Forest, where this is located, because this place isn't the easy place to go. This isn't where you get to find a hotel. No, this is a place you have to backpack to. There's a trail in, you get a set up a tent, and backpack into it. And I tell you what, it is one of the most beautiful places that I've ever experienced. Because as I'm backpacking, and as I even talk about like, I can talk to you about the fact when you walk up the trail and you crest the certain point is that you see Lake Verna. I can tell you about the mountains and how it's surrounded by this lake and how beautiful it is. And I can tell you about the sandy beach that's on the back. Sandy beach. Don't go to the mountains and go to lakes and find sandy beaches in the middle of nowhere. There's a sandy beach on the backside of it. And I can tell you how refreshing it is after a long hike to take off your boots that hurt your feet, no matter how good they are, and how you take off those sweaty socks and put your feet in sand. It's so great. But then the water, that water, if you know anything about mountain lake water, it's not beach water. It ain't warm. No, it's ice cold in the middle of summer. But to wait out, just to your ankles, to feel the coolness on your feet is just refreshing. I can tell you all that. And you can walk away and be like, oh, that sounds like such a great place. but you're really not gonna understand the fullness unless you experience it yourself. And this is true of God's power. Like we see these descriptions in the page and we're like, Paul, that sounds wonderful. I would love to experience it. And we're waiting for it. We're trying to see it. We want it done in our life. We want God to pour the power. And what Paul says here is like, hey, wake up. Your eyes need to be enlightened that you may know. Because this power, as you notice, is towards us who believe. And what Paul is trying to hammer home is that you are as a believer in Christ, somebody who's trusted, put their personal relationship in Christ, who has Him as Savior and Lord. He's like, this power is in your life. But I know, like me, you're probably sitting there and it's just sometimes, oftentimes doesn't feel like it. Still tired, life is still hard. And so then it becomes the question of like, how do we actually experience this? What is this, how does it actually show up in my life? And so that's where we're going to go next. So you're gonna turn just probably a page over, maybe just looking over on the next page. We're gonna look at Ephesians 3, verse 14 through 19. What this helps us do, as Paul gives us another prayer, is that we get this opportunity to see the manifestation. of God's power in our life. So as you look, verse 14, he said, for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his mercy, or of his glory, he may grant to be strengthened with power. through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, was the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, amen. So you see, again, a lot of content here, a lot of places to go, but we're only gonna highlight a few. The first thing is you see that he prays that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. And so really what this is Paul's starting point is that he wants us to be strong, because he understands that the circumstances, that's not what he's praying to change. I mean, even for the Ephesian believers, the ones he's writing to, they have some hardships, they have some difficulties, they have persecution, and he's not praying that those things would go away. But instead, he prays for the strength and power in the inner being, because he knows that is possible for God, and God, again, can do all things, but he will give us endurance. And so strengthen for a while. How does he strengthen us? Well, the first thing that you see is, it's so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love. And so we look at that and we say, Christ may dwell. And Christ, when we look at him, like Christ dwells with us at the moment we put our faith, put our belief in him. But you have to understand, that this continual power has to be a work in our life in order for Him to continue to be there. Because if you think about it, that God in His effort to want intimacy with us, He wants to be very present in our life. And I don't know about you, that I know a lot of you, you, a lot of you know me, but I'm pretty sure none of you have lived with me. And when you live with someone, you get to know them way, way, way more than you probably even want to. Right? I've had friends that I've had as roommates. I'm married. I have kids. Like, when you actually live on the same roof with someone, You see a lot more. You see their tendencies, their pet peeves. You smell smells that you never smelled before. You get to see their struggles, their sin. You oftentimes will be there when they're sad, when they're happy. I mean, you dwell with them. There's a resonance that we have with them. And so when we consider Christ, Christ to be intimately that close with us, is that, guess what? Our spiritual life, there's dirty laundry that's laying out. There's times where we do things that are sinful. We all sit there and to know that God is present, like for him to continue to dwell takes great power because he can't reside in those things. But the other part of that is, too, is that he's not taking residence to be our roommate, to be our friend, to be our pal. He's not taking, because I've had roommates, and I'm not sitting there dictating them, like, this is how you need to live in my house. Like, when they're friends or roommates, they get to pretty much live the way they want to live, and I just have to deal with it. But not Christ. You know, Christ, when he enters the house, it's more of like a parent coming home. Whereas your kids have been left alone. So for me, recently our kids are getting old enough where we can leave them alone. And I know, they're good kids. But when there is something, they're probably yelling and screaming and playing beyond limits. And when I come home, or when my wife and I come home, guess what? Mom and dad are home. And there's probably a change of disposition, right? Because when we come, we have standards and rules and expectations of how they live in our home. And it's not that they're being disobedient, but there's a greater insight and willingness to live under that. And so when we consider Christ dwelling with us, it's that He's coming in not to let us continue in the life we want, but actually change it and live differently according to His standards, according to His rules. And so that takes power, but you can see that The other thing that we can strengthen is the fact that this is rooted and grounded in love. And so what he's trying to do is strengthen to actually remain in harmony with them, but we also, and so what God does, God really, his power strengthens us to follow willingly, and it's also foundationally out of his love that he dwells within us. And so my question to you is like, how is your personal intimacy with God right now? And when I talk about that is, oftentimes we read the Bible, we pray, of duties, of habits, but it's not of a heart of intimacy. Because what those should be is our opportunities to go to God, express personally what's going on in our life, but also for God, when we read his word, to understand his character, to have a growing relationship, have a growing understanding of how he works, who he is, what he expects, because of the intimacy we have with him. So much we treat him like just a judge that's outside of our life that, yep, I gotta follow these rules. Man, he wants so much more. So how is your intimacy? But the other thing is, is that it is rooted in God and love, and we actually have to have the strength to comprehend that. Look at verse 18 and 19, he says, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, and this is, he's talking about the love, was the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of God that surpasses knowledge. You see, God's power, it takes God's power, get this, God's power to understand and to know his love. And for most people, if I went around the room, they'd say, yeah, God loves me. I know that God loves me. But yet so many times we sit here and we wonder, Lord, why are you doing this to me? Lord, why is this going in my life? Do you love me? Because it doesn't really feel like it. And it shows that God's love, surpassing knowledge, surpassing what it may be, is that it takes God's power to understand his love. Because truly what the truth is, is God's power, just as Paul says, he wants you to know the height, the depth, the width, all these things, the length of his love, what is he trying to say? He's like, it's all around you, it's all around us, and we don't see it. We're like swimming in an ocean. looking for water. And what he's trying to do is like, guys, it's all around us. But you don't understand because you need the power of God to work within you to understand the fullness of it. And for us, when we struggle, that's oftentimes when we're searching for God's love. But when what we do is realize that God's love is with us, it actually is gonna be the source of our transformation and also our stability. Daryl Bach. writes this, he says, our identity and security come from grasping the depth of God's love for us and drawing on it for spiritual solidity. Like it's the foundation for all of our life, when we can actually sit there and come to greater comprehension of His love, and it'll give us our identity of what our purpose, but it also gives us the security, because nothing can overcome God's love for us. And so, the real question is, how are you seeing God's love in your difficult, complex situations? Because we say we see God's love when he takes away, makes life easy, but God's love is same when we're weeping, when we feel discouraged, when we feel tired. God's love is on display. When I come home after a hard day's work, come home to a house full of kids who are energetic and excited and I'm tired and don't feel like, I just want to sit down and they want to play, God's love is on display. My view of God's love, God, give me the couch, let me turn on Chiefs game or Royals game and let me just relax and make it quiet. Because really what I'm saying in that oftentimes is that God's love is good and is there when it meets my expectations. And what you have to comprehend is God's love is not there to meet your expectations, it's what's doing best in your life. and it's present. And he's working his power for you to understand it. And again, you have to be seeing it. And the purpose overall for his love and his power is really what you see in the concluding statement for your life. It says that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And what this is not saying is that God is making you into a God. It's not what it's saying. because there's a lot of immutable characteristics of God, ones that we cannot actually take. So like when we talk about God's power, you're not ever gonna be that strong, that powerful. His wisdom, well, you can gain wisdom, but you're not gonna have his wisdom. His holiness, like those are things that we can, but we're not gonna get the fullness of it necessarily. His omniscience, again, all these things we can say, and it's like, we're not going to become God. But what he is saying is, it's progressing us to the fullness of the character of Christ. You see, when we talk about the sanctification process, it's this being molded into the image of Christ. And God is doing that, and He's using His power to do that in any means necessary. Remember, He has the capacity and capability to do all that He wants. And what He wants for His children is for them to have what's best in their life. And what's best in your life is to be molded into the image of Christ. And so, what's, what do you think of that? Because oftentimes what happens is we get into situations, and we have this power of God, and we understand even this truth of Him molding into Christ, but it's just like, we get to it and we just say, God, I can't. I can't. You're pushing me to my level of patience. You're pushing my level of kindness. Or, I know I need to speak truth and love to this individual and share Christ with them, but I can't. I don't have the words. And it's, I can't, I can't, I can't. And what it misses is the fact that God knows you can't on your own. God knows you can't if this is all about your power and your strength. But He's providing this power that you might experience the fullness of being like Christ. And it is possible only through Him. So how do we access this power? Well, we actually just have to move in God's power. And so I'm going to have you turn over to turn a few pages back. It's on page 970, if you're using one of the Pew Bibles. Page 970 in 2 Corinthians 12, we're going to look at verse 7 through 10. Again, we've seen God's power is magnificent. It is manifesting in our life. It's present. It's doing a work. And so we look at that and we go, yes, but yet I go through my week and I just don't feel it. It's so hard. I don't know how to live wholly with all these pressures in my life. And so we sit there and we say, well, it's there, but I really don't know how to access it for strength. This is what I love about 2 Corinthians 12. This is Paul. Again, Paul kind of giving a testimony and also some instruction. If you know anything about Paul's life, you start doing a study on that, go back to 2 Corinthians 11 if you have time to read it, and you see that Paul, man, Paul had it hard. He talks about being stoned, left for dead. He's talking about that, you know, he had shipwrecks, he had people persecuted, he had people even within the church who were trying to discount his teaching. I mean, he had people coming in from behind, he would preach the gospel, he would leave town, then there'd be people come right behind him and say, that dude's not right. He's wrong. You guys need to do what we do." And so he's discouraged at sometimes. The people that he's loved and missed walk away. And so you can see that Paul, man, he has a hard life. And Paul makes very clear, like, it's hard on him. But then he gets to this point in 2 Corinthians 1, he goes, you know what probably the hardest part of my life is? It's this one thing. And so as you look at it, you see that he starts to unpack. He says in verse seven, so to keep me from being conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being conceited. And so, man, here he is, and he talks about this briefly, about these surpassing great revelations. He doesn't go into much detail about it, but then he's like, you know what, in that contract, I guess, that I missed, that I signed with God, he said, all right, I'm gonna give you these things, but in the fine print, it said, ah, but you know what, so that you don't get conceited, I'm actually gonna give you this thorn in the flesh. And I'm sure Paul was like, man, what in the world? What did I do wrong? But you see, it was nothing he did wrong, it's just to keep him from being conceited. And see, what that means is that, conceded in this part, it really means to have an undue sense of one's self-importance, to rise up. So, or because of these surpassing revelations, God was keeping Paul humble. And see, when we were considering how to see the power of God work in our life, how to access it, it first starts with the fact we have to have a humble disposition. In fact, you see a humble disposition, because when this thorn comes into it, and this thorn is a big thing, is that Paul directly goes and prays. When you consider the thorn, I think sometimes we'll read that, oh, he prayed three times. No, that's not what he's saying. He's like, it hurt so bad. He doesn't get into the specificity of what that thorn is, doesn't tell us, and a lot of people speculate on what that thorn is, but this is what you can know about the thorn. It's painful. Get a splinter in your foot. It's painful. They're a little tiny piece of wood that goes into your foot and causes so much excruciating pain. But that other aspect of a thorn actually impedes your ability to do things. So if you get a thorn in your foot, you're going to walk different. In fact, when he says it's a messenger of Satan to harass me, he's really reflecting, like, this is actually making my gospel work, what I'm trying to do as ministry, advancing the gospel for you guys. It's making it hard. And he gives the truth, like, this is to impede me. This is intended by Satan to impede me, but not God. And so we can know that, Thorne, it hurts, it makes life difficult. But then it's also that it's constantly on our minds. You get a thorn in your foot, it's constantly something you think about, because every time you take that step, it's like, oh, the pain, that stinking thorn, right? And so when you consider those things is that you didn't probably walk in here with a physical thorn, but there's something usually in our life that is that thorn, that difficulty, that's, Paul unpacks it, he says it's weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, claim, like, there's all kinds of ways these thorns show up. But what he's saying in here is that here I came, and God to keep me humble, dependent on Him. Because you see, it was necessary for Paul to remain humble because humility moves us from a self-focused, self-driven, self-effort life to living a God-centered, God-reliant, God-powered life. Did you get that? Humility moves us from self-focused, self-driven, a self-effort life to a living a God-centered, God-reliant, God-empowered life. And so we see that Paul cries out three times to the Lord out of humility. And God answers Paul. But what God doesn't say, he's like, all right, Paul, I see this thorn in your flesh. Let me get those cosmic tweezers out. Let me take it and pull it out so that you find relief. No, that's not what he says. He answers, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. I don't know about you, that when we get into these situations, these circumstances, we just want them to be done, over, out of our life. And God often answers with us that, no, I'm going to let you remain. I'm going to let you be sustained, but, but, My grace is sufficient. I can provide everything that's necessary for you to walk through this situation. In fact, you're going to find that my power is made perfect, not in your positions of strength, but when you are weak. So this was Paul's answer. And you expect like Paul to come back and like, oh, really God? Come on, man. Come on, I do all these works for you. You expect like maybe some pause by Paul. Maybe like, ah, I continue to pray, I continue to pray. But that's not what it says. Look what the text says. It says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of the weaknesses. What Paul got to is the fact that he boasted in the fact that he got to experience these weaknesses. Because he knew that by submitting to this truth, by living under this truth, it's like, well, I would much rather have a thorn in my flesh and to see the grace and power of God versus that thorn being removed and not experience those things in the fullness or have a full understanding of how those work. Because weaknesses oftentimes do expose pride or potentials for pride. but also provides the extravagant displays of His grace, of God's grace. And so this is the thing we have to do. Because we look at God's word, we look at his truths, we look at his promises, and man, we take the ones that are like, oh, those sound great, those seem to make my life easier, and then we kind of like, eh, I know these other truths, there's some stuff about suffering in there, or hardships, or persecution, like, I'll set those aside, and you know, I guess I'll deal with them. It's like, God's like, no, you signed up for it all. You signed up for it all. And if you, God is going to put trials in your life to expose these weaknesses, expose places of growth. And you can choose to say, ah, I don't want the suffering, so I'll escape it, or try to, or I will actually look and seek God and depend on Him to actually live through it. And that's what the dependent, it does mean that we have to move to dependence on Him. That's what you see with Paul, as he says, so that the power of Christ, again, I'll boast all the more godly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. is that Paul is so excited that it's better he can rest in the fact, abide in the fact that God is going to empower him to walk in this life. And so we can have the same opportunity. And walking in the Spirit, being like Jesus, I mean, he's grown this in our day-to-day life, but it takes the power of God to do it. You know, I can love. I mean, we can look at humanity. They can love. I can love. I love my kids. My kids can't do much for me not to love them. Of course, you can ask them about my extent of my love. But we settle for that, right? We settle for the extent of the worldly love or maybe what fatherly love looks like. But no, the Bible has to greater love, in order to give that full extent of love. Full extent to love my kids, full extent to love my enemies, like it takes the power of God to rest upon me in order to accomplish that. You see, that's why we have to be dependent, is that we act in these ways, we do fulfill, but we're also depending on God to carry us along, to be able to do these things, to be equipped for these things. And so that's where we have to remind ourselves, like, it does take that, but it also doesn't mean that we're going to get to this position of strength. I think so many times that's what we're looking for. We're looking for a position of strength. But what you see from here is, and what he says, and what Paul says, for the sake of Christ, then I'm content. With my strengths, when people are praising me, when things are good. Nah, this only says, for the sake of Christ, then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities. Like, for when I'm weak, then I am strong. Why? Because it takes all those things. It's not that God's going to work and make you feel prepared for what you're going to encounter in this world. No, but he promises like, if you're following me, if you're obeying my word, if you're gonna seek to be like Christ, it's like when you get into these things, you're not going to know what or maybe how to do it. How are you gonna find it? You're gonna find that my strength will come along, my power will come in you and be able to actually obey. And this isn't some supernatural like cosmic mystical thing. No, it's the fact that it's always present within us. And so the fuel that it takes to actually do it is there. And when we take these steps of obedience, we find out how amazing it works and how it is there. But so many times we want perfection before we take action. And that's just not possible in this life. We're not gonna find, we're not gonna be perfectly loving, perfectly forgiving. We're not gonna have the perfect circumstances in order to do it. No, he's gonna use all these weaknesses, hardships in our life so that we can demonstrate the power of him. And so that's where you gotta ask, what's more important in your life? Is it more important to experience the fullness of the power of God? Or is it more important for you to be able to live a comfortable life? Because the most comfortable thing for Paul was for the thorn to go away. That's not what God gives him. God keeps that thorn in his life so that he can experience the fullness of it. And then when he says that, I am content. He's not saying, I am content, like, oh, I'm going to grant and bear it, God, for you. That's oftentimes how we treat the Christian life. We start looking at it as commands, like, oh, I'll grant and bear it for you because you're not giving me what I want. That content is, I delight. I delight with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. And it's not because Paul's like, I love the pain of that. I don't think he was saying, we love the pain of all those things. But what he's saying is, because of those things being exposed in my life, is that then I'm going to see how the power of God goes and works in my life, and I'll see and have a greater understanding of what it is. I'm going to understand who my God is and how he works. But it takes these things. And so, instead of living the comfortable life, he delights in the hard life, the difficult life. Because what he finds is for when he is weak, then he is strong. And for when you are weak in those situations, you will find you are strong because of Christ at work within you. Because really, when we get into weakness, it's not always about unwillingness, but it's the feeling of being incapable. And God's saying, I'm going to give you the capability of it. In fact, I want to share a story with you. There's going to be a quote that comes up on the back of my screen. So there's a lady out there. She's a cuddly, amazing lady. Her name's Johnny Erickson. Some of you might be aware of her. But what you can know about Johnny, Johnny is a quadriplegic. Johnny was not born a quadriplegic. She actually became quadriplegic as a teenager, a young woman, when she was in a diving accident. So her and her sister jumping in the water. Her sister dove in first, was fine. She dove in, broke her neck on a rock that she could not see. And so if you ever get the opportunity, there's multiple books by her. You can get to see her story, hear her story. You find that She questioned, she hated God for doing this to her. But over time, God saved her through that. And then over time, God gave her, she was faithful, willing, and established a ministry. And this ministry is called Johnny and Friends, and it's getting the gospel out to people who are hurting, who have pain, who are disabled. Like, it's an amazing ministry that she leads. And so, you look at that, and you think like, yeah, You see her impact, you see that, you see her delight, but what you find is exactly what she says here is that it's what God has done actually through her disability, hasn't actually hindered her, kept her back, but actually has propelled her in her life. Look what it says. It says, my affliction has stretched my hope, made me know Christ better, helped me long for the truth, let me repent. led me to repentance of sin, guided me to give thanks in times of sorrow, increased my faith, strengthened my character. And what she's saying is like, the power did not heal her. Because look what it says, being in this wheelchair has meant knowing him better, feeling his pleasure every day. You see, it didn't heal her. Everybody would expect, okay, the extravagant power of God, man, it'd be amazing to see her healed. And then think about the ministry she would go from there, and think about what that would do in her life, and she's like, no. I want to trade that for, again, what it has done in my inner being, which has helped her to know Christ better, helped her long for the truth, let her to repent, go for me to give thanks in times of sorrow, increase my faith, strengthen my faith. Like, that doesn't happen without the injury, without being in the wheelchair, without, I have to be depending on other people the rest of my life. That wouldn't happen unless this thing happened, but this shows the power of Christ. It's what he does in my inner being. And so the demonstration of God's power and love is not taking away our weaknesses, but giving the ability to have faith, obedience, and endurance when our weaknesses are on full display. Hear that again. The demonstration of God's power and love is not taking away our weaknesses, but giving the ability to have faith, obedience, and endurance when our weaknesses are on full display. So I'm gonna have time for all of you to bow your heads, time of reflection. And I know this was heavy message, not a typical message. You might be still waiting through this message. I just want you to go before the Lord right now. Because right now you should be pricked in your hearts and moved. Not because of what I've said, but because you have been able to get a greater glimpse of his power. And so, just listen to some of these questions as you reflect with God. First, do you see God's power at work in your life? Such a fundamental question. And one reason that you might not be seeing it in your life is because it's not there. Because it takes a relationship with Him, a trust of Him, to know, trust and know that Christ died for your sins, and that you put your trust and belief in Him, and that your sins are paid for by Him. There has to be a trust, has to be a belief, a relationship that He desires. And so I'd say take that step today. Take that step, don't hesitate, go before the Lord and ask for that trust. The second thing is that you might have already done that, and yet it seems like it's not there. You might have a relationship with the Lord, but your expectations of Him, He's not meeting. And so it's a question of what expectations is he not meeting? And not to ask him to fulfill it, but to live without it. To live faithfully, enduring, and obedient when those things don't come. So be reflecting on that. But then it's the next step of, it does take a humble submission to God and your weaknesses. And this whole message isn't to discourage you and make you heavy, but to give you encouragement that you can. You can live in the power that He gives you. And so if you're struggling with something, maybe it's a sin in your life. Like pornography, addiction, whatever it may be, you can know and trust that God can give you the power to overcome and obey. It might be the fact that you need to take a step that you're avoiding. Maybe a step to be bold for the gospel, but you just, the words don't come, the thoughts don't come, or you just don't know how that looks. Just be faithful. Take that step of humble submission to actually do it. And maybe you're a father or a husband or a wife and you look at all these callings, it just doesn't feel possible. You need to humbly submit that it is possible, that you can live in this way for His glory. So again, this isn't to be reminded you of your lack of sufficiency. No, this is to proclaim you are insufficient. You are weak. you. There is a power at work within you. A power that's available to you. What he does is gives you the