POWER THROUGH PRAISE (Eph 3:20-21)

Take your way in here to find a seat if you can.

We will begin here in just a moment.

As a reminder for announcements, Wednesday nights, this past Wednesday we started

this month of new member class on Wednesdays over at the house and we had a great group there.

I believe we had seven in attendance for our very first week.

If that is something you want to be involved in and to at least hear about what it means to be a part of 12

.5 church, please come and attend and join us there on Wednesday nights.

We still have the adult study going on in here through systematic theology,

but you are welcome to come and be a part of that and just walk through that.

But I also want to tell you as members, be in prayer for those that are attending the class as they

make this difficult decision of whether or not they are being called to this covenant body of

believers and please keep them in your prayers as they walk through that, that God will give them discernment.

So let's go ahead and start our service this morning.

Y 'all ready to worship?

We're ready, I'm ready.

Well let's stand, let's go to the Lord with a call to worship today.

And our call to worship comes from Psalm 95 and it's the first seven verses and if

you're a guest with us, just you're along for the ride here, our people know what we're doing.

I read a portion and then you, the people, read a section of that passage in

affirmation.

But where the psalmist says in Psalm 95, he says, oh come let us sing to the Lord.

Oh let us come into his presence with thanksgiving.

Oh for the Lord is a great God.

In his hands are the depths of the earth.

The sea is his for he has made it.

Oh come let us worship and bow down.

For he is our God.

And all God's people said, amen.

Let's go to a prayer of adoration to that great God, our maker.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning and

we wanna set aside the distractions, not all the getting prepared and getting ready

and all of the details that go into preparing for a service like this.

God, we just want to set those things aside and come before you for

worshiping you this morning and spirit and in truth is of utmost importance.

Above all of the other things and all of the distractions of this world.

So Father, we pray that we, your people, would be a sweet smelling aroma

to you as we sing, as we pray, as we read your word, as we fellowship,

as we do the things that you've called us to do and to be as your people.

God, I pray that you are receiving all glory and honor in all of it.

That we do not try and seek even a small portion of it because it

all belongs to you and we pray that you would be honored for you are worthy

this morning.

You are worthy every moment and we trust you.

Oh Father, I pray that you are honored in our worship in Christ's name, amen.

Amen, all right.

We're trying to lift your voices this morning, sing out, amen.

If you're visiting with us, we're so glad you decided to come and be a part of our worship here this morning.

Worthy of waiting on the Lord, amen.

Amen, well now in this moment, I want us to go to the Lord.

This is a time for a prayer of confession and assurance and this is a key element of

being a Christian because none of us are perfect, right?

None of us have lived perfectly even this morning, much less this week and we

have so much to confess.

We have so much to lay before the feet of our Savior saying, oh, oh Savior, you

paid for this.

And so now I want us to bow our heads.

I'm actually going to read a prayer of confession but it's not just confession to where

there's penance and we're whipping ourselves for feeling so bad about it but it's a prayer of confession

and assurance because we're waiting on the Lord.

Our soul will wait on the Lord, amen.

Let's bow our heads.

Oh Father, we come before you acknowledging

our sin.

Sin that is both individual in each of our lives and then affects

us corporately that we do so

resting in the truth that all your loving kindness is in your Son.

And Father, we bring it to you in the arms of faith.

And Father, we urge his saving name as the one who died for and

we plead his blood to pay for our debts wrong against you.

So Father, accept his worthiness for our unworthiness,

his sinlessness for our transgressions, his purity for our

uncleanness, his sincerity for our guile, his truth for our deceit,

his meekness for our pride, his consistency for our backsliding,

his love for our enmity, his fullness for our emptiness, his faithfulness for our

treachery, his obedience for our lawlessness, his glory for our shame,

his devotedness for our waywardness, his holy life for our unchaste

ways, his righteousness for our dead works

and his death for our life.

We pray all of this in the glorious name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

How deep the Father's love

for you He owns

all men,

his treasure Made the

pain of the

times his fate

To worship the triune God that is accomplished at a God God the Father that chose us before the foundations of the

world, God the Son that purchased us by blood ransom and God the Holy Spirit that is

sealing us and dwelling us and giving us his spirit so that we may worship him in

spirit and in truth.

What faithfulness.

Well, today we're going to, we're gonna do something a little different.

We usually go to the table of the Lord's Supper after the sermon, but this morning I

wanted us to go before the sermon.

I wanted us to partake of this beautiful ordinance.

A moment ago we prayed a prayer of confession and assurance declaring his worthiness for our

unworthiness, his righteousness for our dead works, his death for our life.

And now we get to partake in the ordinance of the Lord's Supper where we get to see,

we get to see the one that we share with this, through his shed

blood and his body given for us.

And we're gonna do this, like I said, a little different today.

If you are in Christ, if you are a follower of Christ and you are a part

of a healthy evangelical church, you

are welcome to this table.

And so the way we do this is everyone comes around the outside up to these two

tables.

You can take up the elements here, grab the elements, the wine and the bread, and go back to your seat through here.

And usually I tell everybody, we'll partake as a family, pray where you're sitting, but we're

going to hold off on that.

I want you to hang onto those elements because we're gonna come together and partake at the same time today.

And unison as a family, so let's bow our heads now, let's pray that God would be

honored in our worship through the Lord's Supper now.

Oh, dear Heavenly Father, for your great faithfulness.

And your faithfulness is manifested and seen

and it's glory through the sacrifice of your son.

For us, your children, that you have purchased us, you have adopted us, and you have given us his

righteousness.

Lord, if we are in Christ this morning, and now you have told us to come to this table

as we gather every week as a reminder

of the sacrifice of our Savior and a reminder of the oneness that we share together in

Christ, the oneness that we share with the triune God now in unity

because of his righteousness.

And I pray that you are honored in this act of worship.

Oh, search our hearts, Lord.

God, use this as a time for us to experience Christ in a unique way.

For we believe that he expresses himself in a

unique way with his people at this table.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses

23 through 26, he says, for I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you,

that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, he took bread, and when

he had given thanks, he broke it.

Let's give thanks to the Lord first.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you.

Thank you for the body of Christ, his flesh that lived perfectly where we could

not, for he was sinless and he obeyed the law

so that he could be the perfect sacrifice for us.

We thank you for this.

And Paul quotes Jesus here and says, this is my body, which is for you.

Now, hold on just a second.

This is my body, which is for you.

Don't miss that.

That's personalized.

My body that was given over for you, do this in remembrance of me.

And Paul says in the same way, he also took the cup.

Let's pray to the Lord once again.

Thank you.

Thank you for the shed blood of our Savior, for he was the spotless lamb, the

perfect one, and his blood was the ransom paid for each of us.

Thank you for it.

And Paul says, after supper, Jesus said, this cup is the new covenant

in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

And Paul says, for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the

Lord's death until he comes.

And we wait for the coming of our Savior, and we continue to, because this, that's just a taste,

isn't it?

That's just a small taste.

But we will one day sit at a feast with our Savior in the house of the Lord.

And it will no longer be but a taste, but it will be everything.

Our faith will be sight.

Amen?

Amen.

Let's pray for our time of offering now.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, be honored in our worship through giving.

Lord, we pray that these resources would be used for your purposes, for

your glory, for your kingdom, not our own.

In Christ's name.

If a couple of men could go around and pick up the cups and a couple of men could take up the offering right now,

we'll do that at the same time.

It may be a little awkward, bear with us.

But let's sing the doxology together as we do every week.

People said?

Amen, you may be seated.

The men are still coming around with the offering plates and the cups for those glasses.

Please hand those over carefully.

We have a tendency to break a couple every week.

But let's go ahead, let's jump in here.

Before we open up God's word, I wanna say something.

Our prayers are often plagued with doubt, aren't they?

They're plagued with doubt.

We doubt his love for us.

And often we doubt that because of our own sin, right?

The things that we've been confessing this morning as a people.

We doubt his love for us because we know who we are even though we confess our sin and we lay it at the foot of the

cross.

Surely God can't be happy with me.

Surely God can't be wanting to answer me.

We doubt his interest in our petitions.

The things that we're praying to him, we doubt.

We think, well, this is obviously not important enough.

I mean, it's just me.

God's got bigger fish to fry, right?

God's got all of this universe to work in and to take care of and there's

all these big problems.

I'm not really, I don't think God's all that interested in my small petition.

We doubt God's wisdom.

We doubt his wisdom in answering our prayers rightly.

We say, God, here's my request.

And now the only real answer to that request is the answer that I'm wanting.

We doubt his sovereignty over our circumstances, don't we?

We doubt his sovereignty over our circumstances.

Our problem is too complex.

This issue, you don't understand, Pastor, this issue is, it's insurmountable.

Yes, I know intellectually God is sovereign.

God does all things well and everything that he does is good and he controls all things.

I get that, I understand, but we live in a reality.

I see the reality around me and I know what's real and what can and can't happen.

And so we doubt his sovereignty over our circumstance.

We think, well, my sin, my sin is too enticing.

That sin that has a hold on me is too enticing for God to be able to deliver me from it.

We think my child is too far gone.

My child is rebellious and rejects God at every turn and rejects my

authority at every turn and my input at every turn.

My child is too far gone.

We think my marriage is too broken for God.

The love is gone, the trust is gone, everything's gone.

The reality of the circumstances that this is unfixable

because yes, God is sovereign, but I just don't see it.

And we doubt his sovereignty, don't we?

And ultimately we doubt his power.

We doubt his power to do anything about it.

Well, last week we looked at Paul's prayer there in Ephesians chapter three

verses 14 through 19 where we were able to see how we're able to make

a transition from information, the theology, all

that, this is who God is, this is how God works, this is what God's doing, this is the information about

God.

And Paul is praying this prayer that shows us how we can transition from that to the application, the

obedience, the trust.

Because we can have the information, God is sovereign, God is powerful, God is this, but then in the

midst of it we have doubt.

And Paul has done this through a prayer.

A prayer that the Apostle Paul prays where he wants the saints,

us that are the readers here, the original listeners there in Ephesus that are reading these words,

he wants them to be strengthened with power, doesn't he?

He wants them to be rooted and grounded in love.

He wants them to know that love, and that love in Christ, the love of

Christ, and being filled with the fullness of God.

This prayer encompasses so much.

And he ends this prayer now with a grand doxology.

Praise and honor to whom he is praying to.

And Paul does this, I believe, in order to further confirm in our hearts and in our minds, and

even in his own heart and mind, mind you, these truths that he has prayed.

These truths that he has prayed are truths that he has been laying out in didactic form of

theology, and now praying them.

Not only that, but his desire is to praise God, the

source of all things.

Declaring, mind you, we believe.

Help our unbelief.

Does that resonate with you?

Because if you're a Christian, for any amount of time, that should resonate with you.

I believe, oh, now help my unbelief.

And this is what Paul is doing here, I believe, because our unbelief doesn't just

dissipate by mere Bible reading.

You know that, right?

You can't just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and go, I'm gonna read my Bible more, and that's gonna dissipate my

doubt.

It can't be removed by more fellowship.

I'm just gonna keep going to church more and more, and I'm just gonna be around the saints all the time, and my doubts and

all of my unbelief is just gonna dissipate.

It doesn't work like that.

It doesn't even work in my diligent prayer.

When I'm coming to God and I'm begging him, I want to believe and help my unbelief.

None of these things work.

Unbelief only crumbles under God -honoring praise.

That's it.

Unbelief crumbles under God -honoring praise

to the creator as we read his word

with hearts of praise.

You see it?

We can't just read his word.

We read his word while honoring him as what his word is, and it is his word

for who he is, because of who he is, and for who he is.

That's when our unbelief begins to dissipate, doesn't it?

It's when we fellowship with the saints with grateful hearts of praise.

It's not just being around each other that's gonna cause that doubt to dissipate in your heart.

It's gonna be hanging around each other, guiding each other towards praise to the almighty.

That's what's gonna work in your heart.

And it's not just bowing your knee and trying to say words and prayers and pleading with God, but it's a prayer

prayed out of a heart of obedience and

praise.

Then and only then will these doubts and these unbeliefs begin to crumble around us and in our

own hearts.

So let's look at this declaration of praise together.

Turn with me in your copy of God's word to Ephesians chapter three.

We're gonna be looking at verses 20 and 21.

If you don't have a copy of God's word with you today and you're a visitor, I understand, that's okay.

But I encourage everyone that comes, please bring your Bibles because you can't take my

word for it, right?

Don't take my word for it.

I want you looking at God's words and comparing what I say to those.

And if I veer from those, call me out.

And if I don't repent, fire me, okay?

We take that very seriously.

That's why I want you to have your Bible.

Ephesians chapter three, verse 20.

Paul says, 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.

Oh, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever

and ever.

And he closes his prayer with a astounding amen.

Amen.

Let's praise.

Let's praise our father through prayer now that he would help us understand this truth.

Dear heavenly father, we come to you once again because you are the source and we long

to honor you.

We long to praise you, but we cannot do that without your word, your truth.

And we can't do that without the indwelling Holy Spirit within us prompting us and inciting in

us true godly desire.

So give us wisdom.

Give us discernment.

Help us to obey your word.

In Christ's name.

We have seen where Paul, he can't help but just break out into doxological praise in his letters, can he?

You know, he'll be going along, he'll be breaking down all these theological principles and truths and then he

just can't help himself.

Right in the middle of it, he breaks out into praise and it comes out across in his pen and this is one of those

cases, isn't it?

It's because those truths have informed his perspective.

I'm gonna say that again.

Those truths that he's writing out for us the saints in scripture, those things about

God have informed his perspective and now his perspective is

aligned with the will of God.

And the will of God is that of praise,

honor, and glory to him and him alone,

no other.

And why is that?

Why is it that God desires glory, praise, and honor to him and him alone?

Easy answer, guys.

Because he's worthy of it, isn't he?

Any of us worthy of that?

I'm not.

I'm so far from unworthy, it's unbelievable.

Just down into the pit unworthy and so were you but the creator of all things is worthy of all of it.

So he desires it and he desires it rightly.

For me to desire glory and praise, what is that?

Sin, right?

Because I don't deserve it.

But for him to want it and to desire it and to demand it is perfect.

You know what Paul said in Romans 11?

He said, for from him and through him and to him are

all things.

To him be glory forever.

Amen.

And this is precisely why God has given us his word,

specifically the theology.

You ever heard a Christian tell you, I'm not really into the whole theology thing.

I hear that a lot.

They're like, I'm just not all into the theology thing.

I'm like, well, what do you mean?

They're like, I just wanna love Jesus.

You know how to respond to that, don't you?

When somebody says, I just wanna love Jesus, be like, okay, well, who's Jesus?

Like, oh man, he's the son of God that came, he lived perfectly, died on the cross for me and rose from the dead

and bought my victory.

And I'm like, awesome, you just did theology.

That's theology, that's the information about God, right?

But this is why he's given us this information about him so that we may know him and

honor him as such.

If he's most interested in his glory, what's he gonna do?

He's gonna give us the information about himself so that he receives most glory.

This is why the very first Westminster Shorter Catechism, if any of you grew up

being catechized as a child, a question and answer response of doctrine, then you will know this

first one with an astounding response.

But in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the first question to a child is, what is the chief

end of man?

To glorify God and enjoy him forever.

This is the chief end of man.

This is the purpose of man.

This is why man is created, to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

And we are to do so within every sphere and every corner and every crevice of our

lives.

Just as Paul said in 1 Corinthians, where he said, so whether you eat or drink or whatever

you do, do all to the glory of God.

Everything we do in this life is either to the praise of man or to the praise of God.

You realize that?

Everything you do is either to the praise of yourself and man or to the praise of God.

And there's no gray area.

There's no in between.

There's no halfway.

There's no partial.

It's one or the other.

It's that black and white.

You realize that, right?

And here's the problem with that.

God will share his glory with no other.

And so every time there's praise to man, well, let me put it this way.

Every time there's not ultimate praise to God, it's sin

and it's blasphemy against God.

Everything else is praise to man.

And God says, I'm not sharing that because you're not worthy of it.

And I am.

Sounds egotistical of God, doesn't it?

Well, here's the problem.

If you said that, it would be egotistical.

But when God says it, it's perfect because God does all things well and everything he does is good.

It's because he is perfect and holy and just and mighty.

And he is worthy of every ounce of that praise.

And then some.

We could, all of creation could scream the glory of God for all of eternity and

it would never scratch the surface of how immense the glory he deserves is.

Do you understand that?

We could scream it at the top of our lungs at the greatest capacity of all of creation,

every mountaintop, every ocean, every sunset, every star, every galaxy could

scream the glory of God and never even begin to scratch the surface of how immensely glorious he is.

It's just but a scratch of the surface.

But he deserves it, doesn't he?

And so when we are praying and our prayers are selfish, short -sighted and

really seemingly powerless in the moment, right?

It's often because it's not from a heart of praise.

We're not praying thy will be done, we're praying my will be done.

And I'm gonna be honest with you.

Let's take off our holy facade mask for a second, guys.

Remove it because there's no sense of having it in here because we all see straight through it.

But I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna rip it off and I'm gonna say the vast majority of my prayers are my will be done,

not thy will be done.

Because I'm a sinner and I'm selfish and I'm short -sighted and I don't give God the glory that

he deserves and I wish I could.

I just fall short so often.

Do you feel it?

I feel it constantly.

But then we wonder, we're like, why?

Why am I not experiencing the dissipation of unbelief and doubt

in my own heart?

When we read scriptures and it feels lifeless and dead, which happens more often than

not, where it doesn't feel like it's jumping out at you.

It says that his word is living and active and sharper than any two -edged sword, but sometimes when you're reading it, it just

feels like any other novel to me all of a sudden.

Why is that?

It's often because we're reading it as dead orthodoxy, dead information, dead

theology, and not praise -filled, God -breathed truth.

When I go to scripture, sometimes I'm going to scripture and I'm opening it up and I'm like, I know I need to do this.

And I just flip through the pages and read it like I would read any other book.

Information, information, information, information.

And sometimes it's so that I can win a debate.

Sometimes it's so that I can have an answer for my neighbor when they ask me a theological question.

How often is it that I open up the Word and go, oh, the very God

-breathed words of the Creator.

That incites praise in the heart.

That begins, you begin to read it differently then.

How is it that we can read words like Paul's here in verse 20?

Now to him who is able to do far

more abundantly than all that we can ask or think, how can we read these words

and not be transported into awe and praise to that God?

How is that?

I think it's because we are distracted by lesser things.

We're distracted by the things of man.

The glory of God is not being manifested in front of us and all we can think of is temporal things

of our lives.

When Paul says these great words, he is able, right?

Yes, God is able to save my child.

Yes, God is able to provide for my very needs at any moment.

God is able to save my marriage.

God is able to deliver me from addiction.

God is able to overcome my laziness.

God can give me hunger for his Word, but I doubt that he will.

When this is meant to drive us to worship, trust, and glorify the one, the only one who is able,

that's what it's doing.

It's driving our attention to who he is, that he

is able to do far exceedingly more than I could imagine,

fathom.

No, but I doubt that he will because reality tells me

that I can't.

You know, I think of, you think of Old Testament examples.

We all grew up hearing all the Old Testament stories.

We think of the parting of the Red Sea.

Can you imagine being the people of Israel and you've been delivered out of Egypt and you know

the army's behind you and they're just coming to slaughter you and then take whoever's left back into captivity

and you come to the Red Sea and you realize we're trapped.

It's over.

The reality is they are going to die and be taken back into captivity, whoever's left.

That's the reality, isn't it?

That's a true reality.

According to all truth within our realm of the physical,

they're trapped, they're dead, they can't defend themselves, period.

But what does God do?

God doesn't step into the creation and work according to

the reality of that creation, does he?

God steps into creation and works according to his reality, which is

bending all of creation to his will and doing whatever he pleases.

Parting the Red Sea and the people of Israel crossing on dry land, not

muck at the bottom of a sea, dry land, getting to the other side and then

God closing the sea in to destroy the Egyptian army.

Now here's the thing.

Israel saw that happen.

They're on ice.

And those are the same people later on that are building a golden calf, right?

That shows you the human heart.

We're all man -centered.

We can see God come into our situation.

I bet you if I take a survey in this room, many of you could tell me

circumstances, I can, of circumstances where God stepped into the reality of the physical

and revealed the reality of his power and control

over that physical time and time again.

And we can see it, but then down the road, what do we do?

We doubt.

We doubt.

We doubt his words.

We doubt his sovereignty.

We doubt his power.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think, in order for us to fully

appreciate what Paul is saying here, it should be noted that Paul is phrasing this in a very

unique way.

It feels like it trips on itself, doesn't it?

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly, right?

All you English teachers in here may be looking at that going, that's not proper grammar.

Like far more abundantly.

Like you're gonna fail a student for writing this.

But Paul writes it on purpose, and he's doing it because he's driving home a point that encompasses

absolutely everything in all of creation.

A few things here I just listed.

This is what Paul's saying.

God is able to do all that we ask of him to do.

Right?

We get that.

God is able to do all that we ask him to do.

Here's another thing he's saying with this phrase.

He is even able to do all that we dare not ask, but merely imagine.

Okay?

Right?

So anything we ask, anything we ask him to do, he's able to do it.

Anything that we could dare not ask, but imagine he can still do it.

And he can do even more than this.

Far more.

Very far more.

Abundantly more.

Here's the thing.

Our brains can't fathom what God is capable of, can they?

We don't even, we wouldn't even know what to ask if we had it in front of us.

We have no reference point for God's capability.

We do not know, and that's what Paul is saying.

But not only this.

Not only is God able to do far exceedingly beyond anything that we could even fathom or gather in

our small finite minds, it's not even exerting him to do it.

You realize that?

He's not exerting energy to accomplish it.

That's how far great and glorious our God is.

Where we see insurmountable hopelessness within the physical realm, he sees victorious hope.

Why does he do that?

It's because he is sovereign, and his sovereign will ordained it all.

Every step of your life, every single thing that has ever happened to you was the will of God, and he allowed it to

happen.

Every single thing, and he has a purpose in it.

And he will, mind you, receive the glory from it, won't he?

He will receive every ounce of glory from it.

The creator of all things can change any circumstances with a thought.

What does it say at the beginning of creation?

In Genesis chapter one, and God said, let there be light, and what happened?

Light started to kind of appear.

Or maybe he grabbed some elements from over here and put it together.

No, that's not the way it worked.

There was nothing.

It was void.

He didn't create something from something else.

No, God spoke it into existence, and it appeared and it existed exactly how he had created it

and made it.

And when he created it, he said, it's good.

What I made is good.

And when God said something is good, you better bet it's good.

It's great.

It's exceedingly great.

And we serve a God who spoke this universe into existence, and then we doubt he can provide for my needs?

We doubt that he can fix my problems?

Like, that doesn't make any sense, does it?

Do you see how illogical it is for us to worry and to doubt and to have unbelief?

That's the power of sin.

That's the power of flesh.

It makes us think in illogical terms.

We're not even thinking straight.

And he is able to do this.

Look at the second part of verse 20.

He's able to do this according to, he's able to do

anything and everything, far beyond anything that we could fathom, anything that we in our pea

brains can even comprehend, he's able to do without exerting himself, according to,

and how's he doing it?

The power at work within us.

Paul's been teaching about power as a theme throughout this whole letter.

If you were with us a few weeks ago when we first came to this word, the Greek word that Paul is using

here is dunamis.

It's where we get our word dynamite, dynamite.

Anybody ever heard a stick of dynamite go off?

Man, it'll shake everything within, anywhere within the vicinity.

It'll knock the windows out of your house.

The power is immense from it.

It takes life from it, anywhere near it.

But the dunamis, this power that Paul is speaking about, he's been talking about it all throughout.

Back in chapter one, in verse 19, what did he say?

He says, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his dunamis, dynamite, power, toward

us who believe according to the working of his great might?

He's speaking of the power here that he has used to save us.

He has redeemed us from death to life.

He has breathed life into death.

He has overcome death.

He has overcome sin and bought us with a victory in his son by that

power, that tremendous power.

It's the same power that called Paul to ministry too.

In chapter three, just recently, we see it in verse seven.

Of this gospel, I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working

of his dunamis, dynamite, power.

By the working of his power, he took me, Saul, a hater of Christians, who murdered

and imprisoned Christians, and bought me by his power and

called me to be the apostle Paul who wrote a big portion of the New Testament for the saints from here on out.

That's power.

And this is the power that Paul was praying for us to be strengthened by.

We looked at it last week in verse 16 there of chapter three when he prays that according to the riches of

his glory, he might grant you to be strengthened with power through

his spirit in your inner being.

And what is this power that he is speaking of?

It's the power of God, isn't it?

It's this tremendous power of God.

And where does he say that power is, mind you?

In verse 20.

Within us.

He tells us that that power is in us.

According to the power at work within us.

It's not just around us.

It's not just somewhere out there in the heavenly places, which it is, but it's not just there.

It's not just above us, it's within us.

Now, it's not our power.

Sometimes people will hear that, well, the power within us.

No, it's not the power of you within you.

It's not some external power of something abstract.

No, it is the power of the Holy Spirit within us, isn't it?

Remember, Paul's already affirmed this, that God has sealed us with his promised Holy Spirit.

Hasn't he?

He's given that to us.

This means that God is for us, doesn't it?

The power of God is within us because God is for us.

Paul said in Romans 8, 28, most of us probably know this verse by memory.

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together

for good.

All things work together for good.

I love how Paul phrases that because he doesn't leave any open -endedness there, does he?

He didn't say some things.

He didn't say most things.

He said all things.

And later on in verse 31 of Romans 8, he says, what then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

The power of God, that immense dunamis

of the creator of all things is for us.

And the proof of that is in verse 32.

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us.

He didn't spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.

How will he not also with him, with Christ, graciously

give us all things?

Does this mean whatever we ask?

Does this mean that when I'm struggling and I just, all I have to do is go to God and be like, hey, I've got the power within me.

I really, really want that new Corvette.

He's for me, isn't he?

That's what he's for.

He's for me and he says he graciously gives us all things.

Well, let's think about what that all things is.

Think back to verse 28 that we just quoted.

All things work together for good.

He graciously gives us all things.

And those all things are the all things, everything that happens to you.

And he, through his power, that is at work within us is able to do exceedingly greater things.

Greater things than our finite, small perspective can comprehend.

And the only way, the only time, the way that we are in tune with that will

is in the midst of Bible reading.

Is that right?

It's in the midst of prayer.

It's in the midst of fellowship.

No, it's in the midst of all of those things done the way they're meant to be done, which is in the midst of

praise.

Praise being raised up to God.

All that you do to the glory of God.

And Paul goes on with this doxology.

Look at verse 21 with me.

He says, to him be glory.

No one else, him and him alone.

To him be glory.

And how is this glory seen?

How is it manifested?

How is this glory presented to the created order?

Everything within creation in the universe?

Well, the first thing that he says here is the church.

That to him be glory in the church.

What is the church?

His people.

It's his kingdom.

As Pastor Jeremiah dealt with just a few weeks ago in verse 10 of chapter three, when Paul says, so

that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God

might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

To him be glory in the church.

That manifold wisdom is being seen through the church, the church universal,

and seen and represented as the local church, just as here at 12

.5.

You see, this is why we gather to praise, isn't it?

What are we doing today?

We're gathering to bring honor to God, bring glory before the Lord, the glory that's already his.

We're just pointing to it and singing out to him in praise.

When I stand in this pulpit and say, thus saith the Lord, what am I doing?

I'm declaring to you, I'm declaring to the watching world, anyone online that's watching this, I'm declaring to the

angels in heaven and all around us, I'm declaring to the demons in hell and all around us, what am I declaring?

The glory of God.

This is my job.

This is why preaching is so different than just standing here and teaching you on a Wednesday night.

This is exhausting for me because this is a spiritual battle.

I'm declaring to all the watching spiritual realm the glory of God.

That's what we're doing as a church.

And when we bow our heads to pray together, what are we doing?

We're declaring the glory of God, aren't we?

That's what we're doing.

We're bowing our heads before the creator in submission.

And when we sing theological truths like those wonderful songs that we sang today, I was overwhelmed with joy because

these are truths that are coming out of my mouth and I'm hearing you sing them from behind me and I'm just overwhelmed with this glorious

praise of God.

But what are we doing when we do it?

We're declaring the glory of God.

And when we fellowship together, just as we're doing today and we will continue through our Koinonia feast and even

throughout the week, what is that displaying?

The glory of God.

That's the purpose of all of it.

To him be glory in the church.

He also says, though, in Christ Jesus.

You see it in the text there?

The church and in Christ Jesus.

And Christ Jesus is the head of that church.

We are the body.

We are representing Christ because he is working in each one of us.

We went to the table, the Lord's Supper, we're showing the oneness that we have in Christ, but it's this glory

may be seen in Christ Jesus.

The writer of Hebrews in chapter one in verse three, he says, he, speaking of Christ,

is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature

and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

That's how we see him.

Paul affirmed this in Colossians chapter one when he said, he, Christ, is the image of the invisible God.

The glory of God is seen in Christ Jesus.

And Jesus, in John chapter one, we see no one has ever seen God.

The only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

You see, if not for Christ, if not for Jesus Christ, God's attributes of

love, mercy, grace, kindness would never be seen.

You realize that?

There's entire attributes of who God is that would never be seen to the created universe.

For we would all be without hope, wouldn't we?

Only experiencing God's wrath, judgment, and justice.

Now, it's not as though God the Father is wrath and God the Son is love.

That's not how it works.

This is the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all in

perfect unity with all of these wonderful attributes.

We see the Father's love in the fact that he chose us in the Son, right?

And sent his Son to redeem us.

And this is all meant to incite worship, honor, and praise to the triune God, the only one

worthy of it.

So if you are in Christ today, then you are part of his body.

You are part of the church and you are to what?

Display the glory of God.

To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and

ever, amen.

Our Savior Jesus Christ reigns as king forever.

We are to worship him.

He is worthy of that praise.

So I ask you this morning, do not doubt his power, for he is able to do far more

abundantly than all we could ask or think.

And when you praise him, acknowledging his glory, seeing him for who he is and submitting to him

as the great glorious God he is in worship, all doubts and unbelief,

they crumble.

They crumble under worship.

They crumble under praise when praise is given or praise is due.

Now, I wanna say this.

I know I'm running long here today.

Y 'all have to listen faster, I'm sorry.

I feel as though I need to say this.

For those of you in here that feel as though none of what I just said

makes any sense, that may

be because you have never been born again.

You've never seen the glory of God.

You've never been granted faith and repentance.

And without that faith and repentance, without such, you've never seen Jesus.

And here's the thing, if you've never seen Jesus, then you've never seen the glory of God because he is there,

the radiance of the glory.

Of the invisible God.

If you've not seen Christ, I don't mean physically.

Otherwise, maybe we'll call you as an apostle.

I mean, you truly see what Christ has done on the cross,

who he is as the second person of the Godhead,.

Perfect, holy.

If you've never seen him, I urge you, I urge you this morning to trust in him,

call upon him, look to him, trust in the perfect life that he lived,

fulfilling the law perfectly that you and I could never do.

We broke God's law at every turn and he did not.

Trust in his death, the death that he died, taking the wrath of God upon himself,

the wrath that you and I deserved,

and purchasing us by blood ransom.

Trust in him.

Trust in his resurrection, the fact that he defeated death once for all, and it's done.

He said, death has no hold on me, has no claim on me.

And he defeats it and now reigns as king over all.

Repent of your sins.

Please turn, turn to him and trust in him.

Turn from your sin.

Call on him now.

For all who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Guys, music team, could y 'all come up here?

I would like to sing How Deep the Father's Love again.

Y 'all wanna sing that again?

I wanna sing that again.

How deep the father's love.

Let's stand and sing this together, but if you need prayer, I'm gonna be down

here, Pastor Jeremiah will be down here, and you want us to pray with you, or you wanna

know more about what it means to trust in Christ and Christ alone for your righteousness,

come talk to us.

We would love to have that conversation with you as we sing.

How deep the father's love for

you.

Beyond all mistrust.

Nothing we bring, nothing we do, all of him, all glory belongs to him,

amen?

Let's pray for our time of fellowship as we continue our service in this time, as we eat

fellowship together intentionally, and then come back together as we close and talk through

the sermon today.

Dear heavenly Father, oh Lord, I pray that you have been honored in our worship.

It falls so short.

It's so small.

Oh my God, you know who we are.

You redeemed us.

You know that we're small.

You know that we're short -sighted.

Oh, but you long for us, your children, to sing your praise, to

declare your glory in such an infantile way.

But God, I pray that you are honored.

Continue to be honored in our fellowship, Lord, the Christian fellowship as we gather and as we

speak of you, as we love you, as we love on each other.