It's good to be able to stand on this side of the pulpit for a change. I don't think I've done this for many, many years. You know, I've been out of the ministry here for 36 years, and Pastor Franklin used me a couple times to preach when I was just working here in the church and serving the Lord here in the church. I was asked by Pastor Andy if I'd give a little bit of my background and a little bit of who I am. I grew up on the mission field. My parents were missionaries to France. They're both with the Lord today. But grew up in France and went to French public schools. The Lord had laid upon my heart to serve him and I knew that I wanted to serve the Lord since I was a little boy. I always thought that I'd go to the mission field, that I would serve the Lord. Back in France, I speak fluent French, or I did at that time. We just were on a trip to France, and I really struggled with my French after not using it for many years. As a young boy, I thought I wanted to be, or the Lord wanted me to be a missionary doctor, and when I graduated from high school, I went into pre-med, and I should've known that's not where God wanted me. The first time I saw blood, I passed out. It was a strange situation. I was working as a high school student with our family doctor, and the guy was laying on the table, and he was getting ready for a CAT scan, and the blood went up the tube, I saw the blood, I passed out. I wake up, the guy on the table's looking down at me on the floor. I should've known, that's not what God had for me. But a lot of times in our own life, we say, listen, God, I know what you want for me, I'm gonna do it my way. And that's basically what I did. For a year and a half, I went to pre-med, I was in pre-med. I hated every class I took. It just wasn't me, but then I'm gonna continue because this is what God wants. And it wasn't until my grandparents got sick, they lived in Philadelphia, and so my mom being our only child, I moved to Philadelphia, went to Philadelphia Bible College. And that's where I met my wife, Pam. That's where we got in contact with her family because on weekends I would come stay with them. As a result, we would come to church here. This was our church. This was our home church. We view this as our home church. And in 1986, we got married. We were the last couple to get married in the old building before they put the addition on. So some of you remember that. And we were the last. And I think my wife threatened the pastor. that if he would break ground before the wedding, she would have some words to say to him. But we got married and the Lord then called us into ministry. I worked for the Friends of Israel and I was a maintenance man there at the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministries in Deffert. They have 130 some acres of land and I was out, I don't know if I was pruning trees or mowing lawn or what I was doing and I thought, you put me through four years of Bible college and you want me to just mow lawn, if that's what you want, I'll do that. And the Lord said, no, I want you to pastor. And all my education was in missions, it wasn't in pastoring, I knew nothing about pastoring. But I said, if that's what you want me to do, I'll do that, Lord. And so the Lord called me to my first church. I went down to the FFBC church that used to be FFBC church down in Steelmanville, New Jersey. That little church down there, my wife and I, after working under Mark Franklin for two weeks, crash course two weeks, like I know everything after two weeks, we moved down to Steelmanville, and that was the worst experience in my life. My wife was sick from the day we took the church to the day I resigned. When I resigned, she got better overnight. The stress, and we almost got out of ministry at that point. And we prayed about it and the Lord put us under Pastor Glenn Dowdy. Some of you remember Pastor Glenn Dowdy, put us under his ministry for two years as an associate pastor. And through that, the Lord reconfirmed my call to be a pastor. He sent us to Franklinville Baptist Chapel. I was there for eight years. And then after eight years, the Lord called me up to North Chester Baptist Church where God has placed us. It's never easy walking with the Lord. God never promises that our walk with him will be an easy thing. But God has always promised to be there and to minister to us. And my wife and I have been through all kinds of struggles and all kinds of difficulties. I like what Job says. There's a verse in Job, and we're not gonna study this verse tonight, but there's a verse in Job that I really have enjoyed through life. And it's in Job chapter five and verse seven. It says this, yet man is born into trouble as the spark flies upward. Just as the spark will fly upward, man is born into trouble. And the reality of that is true. Everybody here in this room, has something that you're going through, has some kind of difficulty, has some kind of trouble, has some kind of issue that, it might be small, it might be large, it might be something that you can say, hey, I can deal with this, or it might be something where you say, hey, Lord, I don't know how I'm gonna take care of this. but the reality is we all have difficulty. And it really doesn't matter how old you are. As kids, you have difficulties. As senior saints, you have difficulties. That's what the Word of God says. The Word of God says all of us here tonight have some struggles and some difficulties, and I praise God that the testimony of my life The promise of the word of God is that God is able. God is able. And I've entitled my message tonight, God is Able. I want us to go together to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three, God gives us a wonderful promise there in the book of Ephesians. Now most of us probably have studied Ephesians. I'm probably not giving you any new theology or new enlightening truths, but I want us to be reminded of something that Paul wants to remind the church at Ephesus. Ephesians chapter three, starting with verse 14, down through verse 21, we find that Paul prays for the church, and then Paul praises God for his faithfulness. Listen to the words, and then we'll open with a word of prayer. It says this. For this cause, starting with verse 14, for this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts with faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, the length, the depth, and the heighth, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now these are the two verses we're gonna look at in more detail. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ through all ages, world without end, amen. Let's open with a word of prayer. Father, thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you that you have given your word so that we can learn, we can grow, We can be guided. You tell us that your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And so, Lord, tonight we just ask that, Lord, you minister to our hearts and you minister to each and every need that we have because, Lord, you're a God who is able. You're a God who can do all things. And, Lord, we thank you for that. So, Lord, you work, I do pray. I do thank you in Christ Jesus' name, amen. I wanted to read verses 14 down through verse 19, because I believe that's the context of verses 20 and 21. Paul is concerned for the church. Paul is concerned for the church because the church faces difficulties and faces trouble. And we find that today. I don't think there's any time in church history, and maybe there has been, but I don't think there's much time in church history where we are, where churches have faced what we face today. Okay, one of the struggles that I don't know if this church has faced, but we have there at Northchester, is what do you do with the transgender situation? How do you deal with that? How do you deal with the sin of this world coming into the church? There's so many questions and so many things that we look at as a church and say, man, it wasn't this way 20 years ago. It wasn't this way 30 years ago. Okay, things have changed. Okay, we read in Hebrews that we ought not to forsake the assemblies of ourself, and then it says, especially as the day approaches. You know, the closer we get to the return of Jesus Christ, the Word of God says more and more we're gonna find that it's gonna get harder and harder for us as a church. Ephesians went through those problems. Ephesians was a church that we find was a church that had problems just like you and like me. And Paul says, listen, I want to pray for you. And it's interesting in this context what he prays for. I just want to give you, I'm not going to spend time trying to look at all these details, but I want to give you some ideas of what he prayed for. Look at verse 16. In verse 16, I believe, Paul prays for their strength. Notice it says in verse 16, it says, that he, that God, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened in the might of his Spirit in the inner man. Church, I want you to have strength, is what Paul says. Why? Because we fight a spiritual battle. Ephesians chapter six, verse 12, tells us that we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities. We don't fight a physical battle, we fight a spiritual battle. Satan is constantly ready to throw his fiery darts. Satan is constantly ready to, how does Hebrews put it? To so easily beset us, so easily ensnare us with that sin that is so quick for us to, you know, Satan is very quick at that. Satan is just right there ready to do that. And Paul says, listen, I'm praying that God gives you the strength to stand up against Satan. because in Christ Jesus, we are victorious. He says a second thing there in verse 17. He prays for their faith to grow. Notice what it says. It says that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith. And the idea here, I believe, is that there has to be this growth of faith in us. Listen, as Christians, if we're not growing in our faith, I believe we're moving backwards. We need to be growing in our faith. How do you grow in your faith? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by what? The Word of God, okay? We know that God says, listen, as families, as kids, we need to be in the Word of God. I remember when I was pastoring in Franklinville, one of my deacons had junior church, and he was teaching about having devotions, and the importance of kids having devotions. And he says, you need to have devotions like your parents have. You know, my kids who were never ashamed of opening their mouths, you know, they raised their hand and said, my parents don't have devotions. You know, he looked at them and, what do you mean your parents don't have devotions? He's the pastor, the pastor's wife. And he came to us afterwards. And I said, you know, the reason why is because they don't see me having devotion. You know, parents, it's important for your kids to see you have devotion. It's important for your kids, maybe even for older folks to see your grandkids, to see you on your knees praying. Why? Because if it means a lot to you, it should mean a lot to them, because we grow that way. We need to be in God's word. Paul says, listen, I want your faith to grow. I want you to be strong in your faith. Why? Because as we stand against Satan, we need to have this strong foundation. It goes on, it gives us another picture here in verse 17. In verse 17, we find that he prays also for their love to be grounded in Christ Jesus. And notice what it says at the end of verse 17. It says, being rooted and grounded in love. You know, I think sometimes as Christians, we get tired of people always coming. You know, North Chester is right in the city of Chester. Okay, we have people that walk our parking lot all the time. And we haven't had this in quite a few years. But there for a while, we had constantly people knocking on my office door asking for handouts. I need $15. My sister is sick up in this town in Pennsylvania, and there's no way for me to get there but by bus, and I have to, I need $20 to get onto the bus, or they'll knock on the door and say, I haven't had anything to eat. And there's always these, these handouts, and I remember my custodian one time coming to me and said, Pastor, I'm just so tired of people, and every time I see them walking up to me, I walk the other way. And I thought to myself, wait a minute, where's the love of Christ in that? Now I know that we have to be wise in what we give people, and I get that. I would much rather go to the wah-wah down the street with the person and say, you're hungry? I'll buy you food. Okay, I've learned a long time ago, you don't give out just money. When I was in Franklinville, somebody knocked on the door at the church, said, pastor, the Lord has laid upon my heart to give you $5,000. I said, wow, praise the Lord. He says, yeah, but you have to give me $200 to go to the casino and win it first. Sorry, I'm not doing that, okay? That's not how it works. Okay, we need to understand that the Word of God tells us that we have to be wise, but the Word of God also says we have to love one another. There has to be a love even, isn't it Matthew chapter five in verse 44 that says love your enemies? Pray for them that persecute you. Isn't it Romans chapter five in verse eight that tells us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us? The Word of God makes it clear that our love has to be, and Paul says, listen, if we're going to survive in this world today, you need to learn to love one another. And it's not just loving the church, it's easy to love the church. Why, we all think the same. It's loving that person who doesn't think the way I do. You know, North Chester Baptist Church is divided. And it's not literally this way, but you know, it's this side over here are Republicans, this side over here are Democrats. You know, well, we don't like, and when we start, especially when the election is coming around, I hate this time of year, because this side will start praying. You know, oh Lord, we know the evil of that side. Well, guess what? We're brothers and sisters in the Lord. And guess what? If we can't get along here, how are we gonna get along in heaven? You know, there's certain things that aren't issues. We as God's children need to understand the Word of God tells us, listen, we need to learn to love one another. Why? Because we're not gonna have an impact on the world if we're not gonna love each other. There's another point here we find in verse 18. In verse 18, he says, I'm praying that you're able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breath, The lengths, the depth, the height, what is he talking about? He's talking about understanding. Lord, give us understanding. I don't understand this world. I carry one of these things in my pocket, one of these things. It's a smartphone. I think it's smarter than I am. I can't figure it out half the time. OK? You know, Bill's laughing up here. It's true, right, Bill? If it rings, I answer it. That's about as much. And I live in a society today that if I'm going to reach the younger generation, I have to learn that. Lord, help me understand. I don't think Paul's talking about cellular phones. At that time, they didn't have cellular phones. I don't even think they had one of those cans with a string running through it at that point. The point that Paul's making is, listen, you guys need to understand how things work. You need to understand the height and the depth and the length. You need to understand the truths of the Word of God and you need to understand how those truths of the Word of God are going to apply to the world. I had a friend that was in my office yesterday. We've known him for many years and he was, He's struggling with addiction. And I was encouraging him to get into the Word of God. And as, you know, he said, Pastor, I read some verses and I just don't know how they apply to me. And I said, you know, something I want you to start doing. Every verse you read, I want you to ask yourself a question. This is a question my wife made me ask every time I prepared a message when I first started. When I first started in ministry, Okay, believe it or not, my wife had pastoral classes when she was in Bible college. I did not. Okay, so she, you know, as I'm pastoring, the first message I do, I give to her, I said, you read it over, tell me what you think. There was more red ink on that page than there was black ink. This is wrong, you need to change this, and you need to change this, and I still have that in my office, I still have it in my file. Okay, just as a reminder, her question to me was, so what? Okay, what does it really matter? Okay, and I think we need to read God's word and we need to say, okay, what does it matter to me? How does this verse apply to me in my life? So what? Lord, give me an understanding. I challenge this young man, when you read scripture, you ask that question, so what? How can I take scripture? Because if we're only reading God's word, to be an exercise of I'm getting through. I have a man in my church, he says, you know, Pastor, every year, every Christian should read through the Bible. That's a great goal to have, don't get me wrong. But if you're reading through the Bible, you get through the Bible in a year, you're reading the Bible for the wrong reason. You need to be asking, Lord, teach me something. apply this book to my life, it's the living word, and I can guarantee that everything that's been written here over 2,000 years ago will apply to me in America in 2024 and 2025, because that's how God's word works. And Paul says, listen, Lord, help us to have comprehension and understanding of what God's word is. We find another truth. And that's in verse 19. Paul says, listen, I'm praying for you this way. He says in verse 19, he says, to know the love of Christ, which passes all understanding or all knowledge, that ye might be filled with the fullness of God. And I think what Paul is basically saying is this. I'm praying that you can experience God's fullness. That you can experience all the riches and all the blessings that God has for you. And you know something, I don't believe, you know I love that song, count your many blessings, name them one by one. I don't believe any of us here could count the blessings that God has for us. They're too immense. And it becomes a problem when our troubles, as it speaks about in Job chapter five in verse seven, when our troubles become so overwhelming That we look and say, you know, I have nothing to praise God for. That becomes a problem. All of us should have something to praise God for. Every day of our life. Paul even says, rejoice in the Lord, what? Always. No matter what problem, no matter what difficulty, no matter what struggle you have. Praise the Lord. But Pastor, you don't understand. I'm going through this cancer, I'm going through this health issue, or I'm going through this financial issue. I had a lady come up to me this morning and say, Pastor, as of August 12th, I'm losing my house. Do you know a shelter I can go to? Not really, but I'm losing my house. And then she looked at me and she said, but do you know something? I praise God because he has a plan for me. You know, God has a plan. God knows what he's doing. And we need to trust him. That brings us down to the praise that Paul gives. And so as he takes these prayer requests, and he says, I'm praying for you, he says, listen, folks, in the church, in Ephesus, I want you to remember something. I want you to remember the truth that God is able. And notice what it says in verse 20. In verse 20, the word of God tells us this. It says, now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. Notice the picture that we have of God here. Notice what Paul's talking about. He's talking, first of all, about God's ability. God can do. God can do better and better than what we could ever think we could ever ask. God's going to do way above that. This verse has become very special to my wife and I over the past probably 10 years, 11 years. Satan has attacked, you know, Satan has a way sometimes if he can't get to you, he'll attack you through other means. And Satan attacked our family through our kids. And it was very tough for my wife and I. And I remember sitting in my office wondering, okay, where's this going to lead? As a result of Satan's attack on my family, I resigned two times from Northchester. Resigned twice. Both times the deacons told me no. Both times deacons says, no, that's not of the Lord, I don't believe that's what God wants, we want you to stay here. And so I said, okay, but you have to understand, the problems I'm going through right now is gonna take me away from my office, it's gonna take me away, and I still preach, but I was not in my office as much as I needed to be. They understood that. My wife and I talked about it, we said, you know, with this attack on our kids, we have to protect our kids. And we went out and we hired a lawyer. We went and we found probably the lawyer which we were told was the best criminal lawyer in Delaware County. Let me tell you something, criminal lawyers are very expensive. We talked about it and we said, you know, if we have to lose our house over this, that's fine, Lord. The Lord gave us the house, the Lord takes the house away, that's whatever the Lord wants. We were concerned about our savings. We had all these pictures in our mind that this is what's going to happen. 11 years later, we still have a house. We still have our savings. We're doing better financially than we ever did. God has blessed and God has ministered. But we sat there for two years wondering what's going to take place. In and out of court wondering, Lord, are we ever going to get through this? This is never going to happen. I was waiting for this newspaper article to be on the front page of the Delaware Times. Pastor Friedman, North Chester Baptist Church, and his family. And I thought, you know, what a testimony. That wouldn't be a good testimony for the Lord. But that never happened. You know, we, many times, look and we think. Notice what it says there in verse, notice what it says in verse 20. It says that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can, what, ask or think. Listen, our minds can run in all kinds of different directions. Our minds can do all kinds of strange things. And God says, wait a minute, I do better than that. And I love this abundantly, exceedingly above. I mean, to me, I'm not an English scholar. I don't do well in French anymore. I don't do well in English anymore. I'm not sure where I fit in, OK? But I was always told this, to me, sounds like it's repetitious. Basically, what God is saying is I can do great, great, great, great, great, great, great things. Trust me. And that's what we need to learn to do. Paul is saying to the church, God is able to do what you think is impossible for God to do. Can I give you another example? About five years ago, maybe six years ago, my wife and I said, you know, our ministry is dying out. You know, sometimes pastors sense that. You know, the numbers have dropped down. I mean, we were running 100, and then we were running 80, and then we were running 60, and now we're barely hitting 50. The church is dying out here, Lord. Maybe I need to step aside and allow somebody else to come in. I had sought counsel with people and they said, Randy, bail out before the ship sinks. Go somewhere before the ship sinks. And we sent out resumes. We candidated at some churches, two churches called us, both times we didn't feel that was what God wanted. God, you want me here, I don't understand. If you want me to bury the old people, I mean, we had, the average of our congregation was over 75 years old, the average. We had three people that we've celebrated 100 years old in our church. We have one who this year, I think, 102, if I'm not mistaken. She's turning 102. Okay, we have an older congregation. You know, it's pretty bad when the 60-year-old pastor is the young guy in the church. Okay, Lord, what are we gonna do? Before I get too old, maybe it's time for me to look for something else. God says, listen, I got you. But Lord, nope, nope, I got you. COVID hit, remember those days of COVID? And about four years ago, it was probably in 2020, with our older congregation, I had, my wife and I talked about it. We said, you know, we're gonna go up to the Philadelphia produce market. We're gonna buy a case of produce. This week will be zucchinis. Next week will be peppers. Next week will be, and we'll split it amongst the congregation. We'll help the people out of the congregation. One of our ladies who had just started attending, she said, Pastor, can I do that for you? I said, sure, save me a trip, you can do it, no problem. So she went up, she came back the first time with 10 cases. I said, you know, I don't know if we can afford this 10 cases. She said, you know, we're gonna trust the Lord. She says, we're not even gonna charge anybody for the vegetables, we're gonna put them out on the table, ask for donations. The 10 cases turned into 20 cases, turned into 40 cases, turned into three years of going up to the produce market, filling up two pickup trucks full of vegetables, donated to us by the market. That case of produce turned into a ministry we started, we call it Agape Ministry. Agape means God's love, sacrificial love. And we started putting the vegetables out. People started lining up to pick up vegetables. We started witnessing to the people that were there. The ministry has turned around. God has done something that I would have never expected. We are now running between 80 to 90 people. Praise the Lord, it's still a small ministry. But in the past four years we've given out 4 million pounds of food to our community. 500 families each week come and get vegetables. Not only have we started that, but we've started a free store so that you can get household goods. 65 volunteers volunteer. They're not all from the church. 65 volunteers volunteer. As a result of those volunteers, they're now starting to come out to church. We have had more salvations and baptisms in the past three years than we have had ever in my ministry at Northchester Baptist Church. Okay, I'm not saying that, pat myself on the back, I'm not saying that, Pat Northchester, I'm saying that God is able to take what is small and turn it into something that is great. Why? Because the word of God tells us right here in this text that God is able to do what seems impossible to man. Notice what it says. Let's reread that verse again. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, God is able to do. And my friends, I don't know your situation. I don't know where you stand. I don't know what struggles and what problems you have, but I can guarantee you have them. Because the word of God says, as the spark flies upward, man is born into trouble. You and I have trouble. I want to encourage you this way tonight. Will you allow God to do what God wants in your life? so that he can receive the glory. Notice, not only does Paul talk about the ability of God, but he talks about the power of God, and he talks about the glory of God. And notice what he says there at the end of verse 20. He says, according to the power that worketh in you, we sang tonight a song, Christ alone. The words of that song. Say this, no guilt in life, no fear in death, this is the power of Christ in me. That's what Paul's talking about. He's saying, listen, we can stand knowing that we can trust God and he's able to do it, why? Because he's given us that power to understand that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I have that power. The reason why we don't always do that is because Satan likes to get into our heads and tell us, you're not good enough. You're not smart enough. You're not trained enough. You really don't understand. That's not what the Word of God says. The Word of God says, and Paul says, I'm praying that you do understand. I'm praying that you do have the power. I'm praying that you do have the faith and you do have the ability to stand when Satan is going to throw those things. Don't let Satan discourage you tonight, but stand on the power that God has given you and trust his ability to do. And then the last 21 talks about his glory, give glory to God. It's not about us standing up saying, oh, look what I did. I tend to believe if God wanted us to pat ourselves on the back, he would have made different joints on our arms, because then we would have been able to reach our back. I can't reach my back, and you can't reach your back. Why? Because he wants us to give him the glory. It's all about him, okay? Isn't it Proverbs chapter three? It says, trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path. The Word of God makes it very clear. Put your faith and your trust in Him. And that starts with salvation. That starts, you know, at the time where I say, listen, Lord, I understand I can't save myself, but then it goes on in my everyday life. God doesn't just say, okay, you're saved now, go live your life. He doesn't do that. He says, listen, Now that you're saved, you're my child, and I'm gonna walk with you. I'm gonna carry you. I love the footprint poem, you know, Footprint in the Sand? Lord, why is it that when I went through all my troubles, there's only one set of footprints? Because I carried you. That's what God does for us. That's how God works. He is able to do above and beyond what you and I could ever think or imagine. Why? Because he's God. And I tend to believe God loves to do what seems impossible to man. Why? So man can turn around and say, see, it wasn't me. It was you, Lord. We see that all through the Old Testament. How in the world is Israel gonna get away from the Egyptians who are coming down mountain to mountain, the Red Sea? How in the world is Israel gonna get through? Trust God. What does he do? He opens a path in the Red Sea. Dry ground. The Egyptians get in there, the ground's not as dry. They start getting stuck and all of a sudden, they're drowned. God is able. Will you trust him tonight? That's my challenge for each one here. Let's close with a word of prayer. Father, thank you for this text. Thank you for the ability that we have to trust you, to walk with you. Thank you for the strength you give us to stand on the truth of the word of God. Lord Satan, so often we fight a spiritual battle and Satan wants us to think we're not good enough. We can't do that. But Lord, you remind us tonight that Lord, we can do. because our God is able to do above and beyond, exceedingly, abundantly above what we could ever think or ask. And so Lord, we ask tonight that Lord, you use us, comfort us, minister to us, do what needs to be done in our own life. Lord, I do thank you. I don't know what each one is going through, but Lord, I pray that, Lord, you would minister to their needs right now, tonight. I thank you in Jesus' precious name, amen.