Well, it is awesome to be with you, church. My name is Russ, and I'm one of the pastors here. If I hadn't met you, I want to say big time welcome to all of you. Can y'all repeat this after me? Hallelujah. Let's say it one more time together. Hallelujah. What does that mean? It means hallelujah. Yeah, it does. But I I asked a question. I've learned never ask a question I don't already have an answer to. It comes from two different words. The word is halel is a word out of the Hebrew that means to praise, to boast in, to brag, to laud, even to the point of being foolish in a sense. Right? And so on the tail end of how halel is uya, hallelujah. And it's really a shortened version of the name Yahweh. And so in Jewish life, you weren't allowed to either write or say the name Yahweh because it was so holy. Just even out of the human mouth, it was considered to taint it. And so when we say hallelujah, we are boasting and bragging and lauding and saying, yes, God is great. He is good. Hallelujah. And so we sing these songs, but sometimes we just, it hits me, man. I remember saying this, hearing people say this, singing it in songs, but never knowing what it means to brag, to law, to celebrate the person of God, to say hallelujah. Praise be to Yahweh. Let's brag on the Lord together. But I've come to the conclusion that how do you brag, or here's a question. How do you brag? How do you boast? How do you celebrate someone you don't know? How can you say hallelujah, Jesus? How can you say I am saved if you can't identify the object of your hallelujah, the object of your praise and your worship? And we're in this series, the second week, of the God you can know, and trying to distinguish this understanding between knowing about God and actually knowing God personally. Where you can say hallelujah, not just to sing along with the rest of the crowd, but it comes deep within your soul. It comes from within you because you have met him. Listen, we can't worship someone we don't know. We can't know someone, we can't love someone we don't know. And listen, we can't know God unless we relentlessly pursue him. As we said last week, uh A.W. Toger said, the most important thing about you is what goes through your mind when you think about God. That's the most important thing about you. And it's so we can know him. And as a result of knowing him, we would love him. As in a result of loving him, we would pursue more and more and more about him. I think we've all run into the reality that this reality that we can't do life in our own strength. We run into this reality head on. We look at what's happening in the world, we look at what's happening potentially in our local community, and then if you if you dig deep, just what's happening in your own personal heart, your family, and your loved ones. And we we don't, we realize we don't have control. We don't have any power in and of ourselves to confront some of these realities that we are running head-on into. I don't know about you, but I've run into some realities that I just I've learned I can't I can't deal with on my own. I thought, well, when Jill and I were first expecting, I I bought two or three books on parenting. Yeah. Yeah. I read one and realized there's I I didn't even know I didn't know this much. I how about our our own health and body? We could we can do all the things necessary to take care of ourselves, but at the end of the day, sometimes things happen that are out of our control. Healthy people get sick. Healthy people that eat right and do the right things. It's just just it's the reality. How about how about when you think you've got your your emergency savings fund? And I don't know if you've ever been there when when it reached that point that you know we all have to believe in the gospel of Dave Ramsey, right? The six months or whatever he says, and and and if you you reach that point and you feel this sense of security, man, we've arrived, and then all of a sudden. Do you have a number of an HVAC? What's that sound I hear from my engine? How about our relationships? As much as we want to try to force someone to like us, to love us, to be in a relationship with them. Listen, there's something beautiful about relationships and friendships where we're two parties together because really we don't have control. I've tried to get people to like me. It just doesn't work. Which explains a lot in my life. How about creation? I mean, how is it that WSB can put out a forecast about the state of Georgia having a certain temperature weather outlook on one day, and when I lay my head down on my pillow, I wake up, usually in the middle of the night, at least once, but wake up and it's it's it's it was supposed to be 80 and warm today. It's snowing outside. I mean, we we look, we don't really have control. It is an illusion to believe that we are in charge of anything. There's something we want to feel, that we we like feeling like we're in charge. We want to think that we're in charge, but living as if we are in control have found out is absolutely exhausting. It perpetuates this performance image management that comes out. This is talking about me, I'm sharing my testimony. Um but but chasing after this idea of being in control, it's exhausting. It can leave us uh numb in our souls, and and we we really don't have any control. Life is a practice of releasing control, placing ourselves in the hands of an all-powerful God, which leads me to say this big idea, share with this, share with you this big idea that God's power is my permission to surrender. We have an all-powerful God, all-sovereign God, a a God that is in control, and his power is my permission to surrender. And so we say God is all-powerful. What we're really saying is God is omnipotent. And we shared the, we threw out this word, I think, a few weeks ago. What does that mean? Omnipotent. There's two words coming together, omni, which means all, and then potent, which is power. Um, and so God is all powerful. And God's omnipotence means this: that God has the power to accomplish all he wills. Always in line with who he is. God's omnipotence means God has the power to accomplish all he wills, and it's always in line with who he is. God has all power, it's unlimited power to do all that he proposes to do. Nothing outside of God can stop him, slow him down, or surprise him. I love what the psalmist says in Psalm 115, chapter 3. He says, Our God in heaven, our God is in heaven, and he does whatever he pleases. And so when we talk about God being all-powerful, we understand that he will do everything that he wills, which is not necessarily the same thing as my wish list. God can do anything, but omnipotence doesn't mean God will do everything I want, which is why I have permission to surrender to his omnipotence. God's will is always tied to his character. That's why we're doing this series, the God you can know, not know about, but know personally. And learn him as we study his revelation together, we learn who he is from his revealed word, from the person of Jesus, from the Holy Spirit and dwelling in us. And God's will is always tied to his character. God is never going to do anything that will go against his character, and God is holy. God is true in all of his ways. And it means he cannot lie. And if God cannot lie, here's a few things to anchor yourself to. God's power is always holy, never sinful. God's power is always wise, never foolish, God's power is always good, never cruel. God's power is always purposeful, never random. And the truth about his character is something we must know. And the way you know it is you get to know him up close and personal. So if God is all-powerful, his power, if he is always holy, wise and good and purposeful, here's what that means: it means I can loosen my grip on wanting to control things in my life. Because I'm not placing my life in the hands of chaos, I'm placing my life in the hands of a heavenly father. And this world's full of chaos. Anybody noticed what's happening around the world, what's happening in our own neighborhood, what's happening across the street? Actually, I have great neighbors, not a problem there. They go to church here, which may or may not mean anything.

Okay.

So can I just can we look at four ways that God puts his omnipotence and power on display? The first way God puts his omnipotence and power on display is this God's power to create, God's power to create. He brings something from nothing. This is, we see this in the very beginning, Genesis 1, 1 through 3. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God, what's it say? Then God He spoke. He spoke. That's power. He spoke, let there be light, and there was light. See, God speaks, and that changes reality. God speaks and reality obeys. God said, Hey, separate the waters from the expanses, and it was so. God says, let dry land appear and it was so. He says, Let the earth produce vegetation and it was so. God said, Let there be day and night, and it was so. God said, let there be animals, birds, and fish in the sea, and it was so. And God said, Let us make man in our image, and it was so. And so look at the progression here. God creates from nothing. He's not rearranging atoms or materials or primordial slush. He is speaking and calling things that are non-existent into existence. God creates by his word, no tools, no fight, no strain, no effort. God says it and it is. It was and it is. God creates with order and purpose. God creates creation with a purpose. There's an intelligent design. There's several nights ago where I saw this come up on the news. Anybody remember that? I mean, any any nerds in here like me? Lined up. And so I'm gonna have a romantic moment with my wife. I said, Jill, come out, come outside. Let's let's go outside and let's let's look at the planets lined up. And and she said, I mean, she loves stuff like that. And so she came outside and and and I she said, Where are they? And I said, I think. And I pointed at these five bigger dots in the sky, and she looked up and she said, Oh, Russ, thank you. She said, Tell me more about them because I can't see them. And she didn't have her glasses on, which doesn't really change much. But the effort, listen, God creates. And it's good. A.W. Tozier says, God is good and all that he does is good. God is not limited in his creation. He doesn't need the right conditions, the right budget, the right team, or the right timing, or the right electrical panel. He has the power to create what he wills, when he wills, and how he wills. And John, John gives credit to the Jesus being a part of creation. John chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, and he was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him, not one thing was created that has been created. And so, based on this passage, Jesus is eternal. He was there in the beginning, creating with the Father. But notice the last part apart from him, not one thing was created that has been created. Everything that you look at and see around you is the product of the creation that God has made. And God doesn't make mistakes. Can I say it again? God does not make mistakes. Paul writes about this in Colossians 3. He says, For everything was created by him in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. Can you just say wow for a second? Paul goes even further. It's not that God just creates, but he also holds things together. His power creates, but it wasn't just something in the beginning. It's here and now. God holds things in place. Right now, in this moment, God sustains us. Your heart is beating. He gives you breath. He gives us a system where our neurological system where our brain operates with our bodies. I mean, all of these things. And we listen, no matter how you feel, I don't I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like things are out of control. I I had somebody take a video of me surfing a couple years ago. That's one of the biggest waves ever recorded in history. No, it's not me. It's not me. This really this is actually a video of a German surfer by the name of Sebastian Studner, and this wave is, I think, the largest wave ever recorded that a human being actually surfed. 115 feet tall. And so I just saw this a few weeks ago, and I said, you know what? There's a picture here of God's power and our and and the minuscule existence of ourselves. And we are completely at the mercy of God's power. Let me tell you something. I I think this is what I think. I say, way to go, Sebastian. You did a great job. A lot of surfing experts, but don't believe that this is valid because he was actually pulled by a wave runner into that wave. And so they say that doesn't count. All I know is that is a big honking wave and a little dot of a person. And sometimes I feel like life is coming at me like that. And the only way I can stay into the wave of God's purpose and his will is to completely surrender to his omnipotence and his all-powerful existence. Alright, that's anyway. Take a picture and share that. Russ shared a picture of his surfing experience. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. What does this mean for us? If God can create by his word, he doesn't need my frantic, anxious micromanaging of life. If God can bring order out of nothing, he can bring order out of what feels like chaos in this world and in my life. If God can create, then he can provide. And so God, God puts his power on display, his omnipotence on display through his power to create. But secondly, he puts his omnipotence on display through his power to rule, which means he rules over kings, nations, and outcomes. God puts his omnipotence on display by how he rules. God's power isn't only seen in what he creates, it's also seen in what he commands. Omnipotence isn't just strength, it is sovereignty. It is rule, it is reigning. And he doesn't just have power, he has the right to rule. And God rules without any rival, without any opposition. No one can thwart his rule or his sovereign plan. We don't have time to break all of this story down, but I want to take you to the book of Daniel just for a few minutes. Daniel chapter 4. It's this story, it's a great story. If you want to slow down and read it, where a king by the name of Nebuchadnezzar was ruthless and powerful. He led the nation of Babylon under his rule. His nation conquered most of the then known world, even the nation of Israel at the time. And Nebuchadnezzar, like all of us, maybe, maybe not you, but Nebuchadnezzar got a little bit too big for his breeches, so to speak. And he decides to make a golden statue dedicated to himself and force everyone in the land to worship him. Nebuchadnezzar had all the power this world could offer. He seemed untouchable and he seemed unstoppable. And in a moment, everything changes for Nebuchadnezzar. God shows up in a dream and says that Nebuchadnezzar is going to become like a wild animal grazing from the fields. In other words, he's going to go crazy and basically lose his mind. And it happens. Daniel 4, verse 25, he says, it says, You will be driven away from people to live with the wild animals. You will feed on grass like cattle and be drenched with dew from the sky for seven periods of time until you acknowledge that the Most High God is the ruler over human kingdoms and he gives them to anyone he wants. And this is exactly what happens. It only took seven years for Nebuchadnezzar to get there. But finally, this happens. Verse 34. By the end of those days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven and my sanity returned to me. My sanity returned to me. Listen to what, listen to the testimony of an ungodly, power hungry leader that has. Been brought down to a place of humility. He says, Then I praised, I haleled the Most High, and I honored and glorified him who lives forever. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing. And he does what he wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can block his hand. Let me read that part again. There is no one who can block his hand or say to him, What have you done? So Nebuchadnezzar thought that he had it all. Power, authority, nothing was beyond him. God sets him in his place. The Most High rules over human kingdoms, and he gives them to anyone he wants for his purpose and his plan. John writes in Revelation 19:6 of Jesus, he is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. This isn't a title. This is reality. This is who he is in his existence. God is not campaigning. He's not running for office. He already has all authority. He's not waiting for approval or vote. He's not reacting to what's happening in the world. Paul says it this way in Ephesians 1, 20 through 22. He says, He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at the right hand in the heavens, far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion and every title given, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church. He reigns. Church, he reigns. Jesus reigns. He is the visible image of an invisible God. He is the one that has brought the revelation through his life, his death, and his resurrection. Every ruler, authority, power, dominion, title in this age, in the age to come, everyone is under his rule. Not just some, but all. Which means this no election changes who is on the throne. I've said this before. And you look at this world and you think about people that want to take credit for what's happening in certain areas and blame, place blame in certain areas. What I have found for me is to get my nose out of the news and get my nose into the word. When I was learning to drive, my dad and my older brothers were kind of part of teaching me how to drive. And you know, one of the main things they say, hey, you need to be aware of all your surroundings. Got a big windshield, and you got three mirrors, and you need to look at each one of those mirrors, glance at them. And so as I'm driving, I found myself I'd focus a little bit too much on the rearview mirror or maybe one of the side mirrors, and I'd come really close to the edge of the road, and my dad would say this: he'd say, Son, you gaze at the road, you glance at the mirrors. And what do I mean by that? Listen, it's okay to glance at what's happening in the world. You glance, but you keep your gaze foreign. You keep your gaze on Jesus Christ. There's, listen, no economy threatens his rule, no diagnosis catches him off guard, no situation in life is outside of his authority. And all of this matters. Because if God is truly in control, I don't have to be. I don't have to be. I don't have to wake up. And worry about things that I don't have any control over, because I have put my faith and trust in the one who does have control. And so God puts his omnipotence is on display in creation in his rule, but also over nature, his power over nature, the unseen, the storms, sickness, and demons, the demonic world. We see this all throughout the story of Scripture. And some of the examples, the plagues of Egypt, how God poured out his wrath upon Egypt through the ten plagues, how God's power parted the Red Sea. And Joshua 10. He makes the sun stand still so his people could win victory. He shuts the sky through a drought, but he also sends rain at Elijah's word in 1 Kings 17 and 18. In Psalm 29, 3 through 10. Let me just skim through this. I won't read every verse, but it says, the voice of the Lord is above the waters. The glory of God thunders. The Lord above the vast water. Verse 7: the voice of the Lord flashes flames of fire. The voice of the Lord, verse 8, shakes the wilderness. The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the woodlands bare. In his temple all cry, glory! Can you say glory? The Greek word for that is doxa. We get the doxology. The doxology is a song that used to be sung regularly in church. See, see, y'all, y'all, that was meant to be a joke. And some of you people that know that song, you should have laughed just to make me feel good. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. But you know what that it means glory. Really, what that means is it means weight. It means weight. You ever been to the gym and and there's a guy over there, and he just he just he says, oh, slap some more plates on, slap some more plates on. He's wanting to show off something. Let me tell you, God doesn't do it to show off. He just He just bears the weight of everything because He's all powerful. It's just in who it's because of who He is. A lot of times I think of putting more weight on, I'm just putting more, I'm thinking about more and more of the character, God's goodness, God's greatness, God's compassion, God's wrath, all of these characteristics of God that are weighty in their understanding. And in the Old Testament, God doesn't just rule over people, He rules over reality. He parts seas, stops the sun, commands the drought and rain, sets boundaries for oceans, appoints storms and fish. In Mark chapter 4, I won't read the whole section, but Jesus shows his power and sovereign control over the winds and the storms. They obeyed him. The disciples are panicked. They thought it was the end. Everything seemed out of control. And then he asked them basically, if I have authority over the storm, why don't you put your trust in me? The most significant display, I believe, of God's omnipotence, his power, is his power to save and transform. His power to save and transform. When we think about God's power, we think about these wild moments. The seas are part of the storm seas. But the deepest, most unbelievable miracle is how he brings dead people to life. Through the power of Jesus. God's greatest power is resurrection power, making dead people come alive. People, and I'm not talking about physical death. I'm talking about spiritual death. People that don't know God, but all of a sudden he invades their life and they're open to the gospel. They receive and they believe. They repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ. Paul writes about this in Ephesians 1, 19 and 20. He said, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know. Say no. What is the hope of his calling? What is the wealth of his glorious inheritance of the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the mighty working of his strength? He exercised the power, this power, in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at the right hand in the heavens. This is a prayer that Paul is praying for the church at Ephesus, that their eyes would be opened to the immeasurable power and greatness of who God is through Jesus Christ. Paul says this in Romans 1.16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel. This good news, because it is the, say it with me, power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The gospel is power. The good news is that God has made a way for us to be reconciled to our Father, where we don't have to stand at a distance and see creation, see his sovereign rule. No, he invites us into a personal relationship. He says, I want to know you. And then we spend our the rest of our life pursuing him and knowing him more significantly. As our team comes to close us out, we're gonna have a time of reflection. I was thinking back 35 years ago. I was working a sales job, God was dealing with me, calling me in two. I felt like God was moving me, changing me. Great job, great, great situation I was in. Love working with students as a volunteer. But God was bringing me to a place, and and in that place, I just kept I kept wanting more and more of the Lord. I wanted, I wanted, I can't miss this. I felt like I had these big decisions to make, and I and I, and I and I remember I went to spend some time with a friend of mine named David Yarborough, who who at that time lived in Dalton, Georgia, and I went up and spent a couple days with David, and he was a mentor, kind of a, he had been, he had walked with God, I think, even from a young age, and I was still kind of new to the faith. And and and David, we were together one night having dinner. He said, Hey, tomorrow morning, tomorrow morning, I want you to I want you to meet me. Let's get up at about five o'clock and let's head out. He took me right outside the city of Dalton to this to this outcropping of rocks where where it had this unbelievable overlook. And he opened his Bible. David began to read this over me. Moses said to the Lord, see, you say to me, Bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight. Now, therefore, I have found favor in your sight. Please show me now your ways. This is Moses praying to God, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people. And he said, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. And he said to him, If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, and I in your people, it is not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, and I your people from every other people on the face of the earth. And the Lord said to Moses, This very thing you have spoken to me, I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name. And Moses says this one sentence, this one prayer, and it's probably been at the heart of my prayer life for the last 35 plus years. Now, when David was reading his copy of God's word to me, it was in the Old Kings English. And the prayer was this I beseech you. I beseech you, Lord, show me your glory. And it's this idea that Moses is saying, God, I'm gonna grab hold of the hem of your garment, and I'm not letting go until you show me your glory. The English Standard Version says, please, please, please, God, show me your glory. And every morning you want to wake up, you want to deal with the chaos in this world? You want to try to surrender your life to the big, big things in our life, raising kids, surviving economically? More importantly, how do we reflect Jesus to a lost and broken world? How do we carry the gospel? Easter's coming up. Here's my question: who's your one? Who's the person closest to you, but is the farthest from God? And maybe, maybe we should spend the rest of these few weeks before Easter waking up every day saying, Oh, I beseech you, oh God. And if you don't want the King's English, you just say, Please, God, show me your glory. So, in a second, we're gonna reflect and we're gonna close with this song that really just speaks to this reality of the fact that we want to know God. We want to know Him and we want to be known by Him. And so our reflex. We stand up. I don't want you to reflex. No reflexes here this morning. If you want to stand, you can, but don't let it be a reflex. If you want to kneel, you want to come to the altar, you want one of us to pray with you, we would be honored to pray with you. But maybe as we sing this song and you look at these lyrics and you you should and you think of this prayer that Moses offered to God, I beseech you, Lord, show me your glory. Show me your glory. Please, please, show me your glory in this broken world, this messed up, chaotic world we're trying to make sense of. Show me your glory. When God shows up, everything changes. Would you pray with me? Father, God, we ask that you would use this time as we reflect. God, that we would not just react out of reflex, but God, we would sit. Here's what I'm gonna ask you to do. Just sit with your palms open. And I sometimes I think it's just good to do things that take you out of your comfort zone. Maybe raising your hands. Hallelujah. We boast in the name of the Lord our God, even to the point of doing something that might feel uncomfortable or foolish. He is worth, he is worthy of all of our praise and all of our response. And whether God's speaking to you, calling you, maybe for the first time into a relationship with Jesus, which today is the day of your salvation. If you don't know him, just ask him to change your life and turn and put your faith in him wholeheartedly. Maybe you're dealing with some chaos in one of these areas that we tend to think that we can try to control. And maybe, maybe your response is just to maybe even physically having your fists closed and just opening them. And in that physical posture, you surrender, and it moves from your hands past your wrist up to your shoulders and all the way to your heart. Father, we beseech you, show us your glory.