Point Community Church
The teaching of Point Community Church in Austin, TX.
Point Community Church
Knowing God - God is All-Powerful
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Psalm 62:11, Revelation 19:6
It's a great way to uh be prepared to preach and just to be stirred with fresh affection for God and uh just be reminded of how awesome He is. Um my name's Nick and I'm one of the leaders here if you're a guest. Just want to uh say welcome, glad that you're here, thankful that you're here, and uh pray that already your heart's been encouraged. Um if you happen to be sitting on my left, your right, at the end of a row, if you wouldn't mind just reaching down and grabbing that little black uh notebook that's there. Uh we have to have a simple little connection pad that we ask you guys to fill out. And uh everybody fills it out, whether you come every week or whether you're just a guest today. Um just a guest, that sounds bad, right? You're a guest today. Uh, and that's just the way that we know who's here. Yeah. And uh and and also if you are a guest, we'd love to uh be able just to say thanks for coming. And in fact, if you are a guest, also it uh would let you know that on your way out today, we have a connection point back of the room here, and we have a gift for you. It's just a small gift to say thanks for being our guest. Um we are uh continuing on through our teaching series right now called Knowing God. And uh if you did not get a worship guide when you came in, you can lift your hand real fast, and we actually have someone who can bring you on. Thanks, Frank. Uh and we want to make sure you have a way to follow along with our notes. Um then also you'll notice in that worship guide that on the back there's some scriptures you can be reading during the week. And so if you're you know wanting a plan to be in God's Word, which we hope, I mean, even if you're brand new to this thing, uh brand new to Christian faith, brand new to uh Jesus, uh you don't have to wait from from each Sunday to read the Bible. You can actually read it every day. And if you're brand new to reading the Bible, there's a little helpful uh just kind of pattern or plan for that. But we believe that when we open God's Word, um it really is dynamic. Uh it's life-giving, and it will transform our lives and our hearts. And so I encourage you to do that, to join us in that. And uh those verses typically go along with what we're reading, what we're teaching on Sunday. Um, and then also we have what we call life groups. And so if you're again new to point and you're wanting to get connected in community, uh, we want to invite you to participate in a life group. A life group is just a smaller group of people that meet in a home uh around this area, uh, typically on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday evening. Um, and it's just, you know, share a meal together, talk about what God's doing in our lives, pray for each other, really challenge each other to grow in applying the truths of the gospel, uh, living that out in community. And so we encourage you to be a part of that. If you want to know more about how to do that, you can again talk to someone at the connection point at the back of them, or even come find me immediately following the gathering today. Um, I want to start this morning in the Word. And so the whole time we've been going through this series, this is a little different than some of the other teaching we've done here at Point, uh, meaning that we've been teaching through books of the Bible, and we actually wrapped up the book of John not real long ago. And then now, as we're teaching these attributes of God, uh, we're not just teaching straight through a book of the Bible, and so we're gonna have a lot of scripture. Um, as I mentioned already, some of those scriptures are in your reading guide for this week, but I encourage you to write the scriptures down, and then this week come back and follow up and read some of them. Uh, because one of the things that we don't want you to do is we don't want you to base your belief solely on what I say or whoever's preaching up here says, but to look at God's word and say, what does it say? And if you're gonna uh struggle or you're gonna wrestle or you're gonna push back, I want to encourage you to go to God's word and ask God to speak to you and wrestle with it because God's word is our authority. It is what we focus on teaching here at Point Communion Church, and we're gonna do that as the best that we can to really obey Scripture, follow Scripture, and look to Scripture for even understanding who God is. And the other thing I want to say before we jump into this today, and I read these two verses, is that we don't want to just know about God. Um, God is not just a subject to be studied. He's not just this distant God who's far off and disconnected from our everyday lives. We want us to encourage you, and our invitation is to actually know God experientially, personally. God doesn't just touch our intellect, he touches our emotions. God doesn't just want to help us mentally get to a place where we can believe he exists or that he's these particular attributes, but that actually he wants us to have a personal, dynamic relationship with him. And so we can pray, we can talk to him, and guess what? God actually speaks to us, he talks to us through his word and in our prayer. And so I encourage you guys, um, again, if that's something that's new to you, maybe you even have questions about how life groups are a great place to get connected in that. Or come talk to me, we'll we'll connect you with some more information about how to nurture a relationship with God and what that what that actually looks like. We want to know not just about God, we want to know God. And just in case you didn't know this, God actually is pursuing you. And he wants you to know him. He already knows everything about you, but he wants you to know him. And it's an awesome thought. So, two verses to get us going. Psalm 62, they're on the screen above me. You don't even have to turn there, but I do encourage you to write them down. Psalm 62, verse 11. Once God has spoken, twice I have heard this. That power belongs to God. Let me read that one more time since it's so short. Once God has spoken, twice I have heard this. That power belongs to God. Now I want to jump to the end of the Bible. The last book of the Bible is called Revelation, chapter 19, verse 6. We get this little scene in heaven described by the Apostle John, and here's what he says. Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude, like the sound of cascading waters, and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying, Hallelujah, because our Lord God, the Almighty, has begun to reign. Um, some of you may be aware uh of the Alleluia chorus. I'm guessing at some point in your life you've heard that, and these words are actually the ones that that spurred that that very uh piece of music to be written, and and we sing this uh Allelujah chorus, uh, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth, right? You guys know that? You ever had to sing that? Ever got the opportunity to sing that? Um reminding us that God is all-powerful, that God is all-powerful, and that's the attribute we want to focus on today. And I want to encourage you that as we focus on this attribute, that again, it would it would not stay a distant attribute, but that it would become personal for you. And so that just is going to take some processing it out. That's gonna take some thinking, but it's also gonna take some inviting God to humble us and to help us to truly believe and embrace the truth about this particular attribute. But when I read these two verses, I could have read a hundred other verses that speak to this very issue. And these are just two simple verses that remind us that God is all-powerful, that power belongs to him, that he has all power, he is omnipotent. There's only one time in the entire Bible that the word omnipotent is used, and it's used about God because he's the only one who is that. No one else is omnipotent, no one else has all the power. The word almighty is there in the Revelation account, which is the same way, same idea, different way of saying it, different word, but it's the same thing. All might, all power is in our God. And so to begin this morning, I want to start out with by making a premise that is this God can do all his holy will. God can do all his holy will. Now, I hope that for some of you, this is review. I hope that as with each of these attributes, this is review, but that it's a review that refreshes your heart. That's a review that reminds you of how awesome God is. Because if you're like me, many times we hear about God and we kind of can get indifferent. We can get a little bit complacent. We can get, maybe another way to say it is we get a little too comfortable with God. It's almost like we just don't give God or acknowledge God for who he really and truly is. We talk about him, we we think about him, we maybe even pray to him, and yet we forget that he is the all-powerful God. Just like the last two weeks we talked about, he's the all-present God and the all-knowing God. And today we want to say he is the all-powerful God. And you'll notice that in this initial statement, God can do all his holy will, that there are two parts to that. He can do everything. First off, now, again, I'm going to give us some more illustrations of this in a moment, but if you've read your Bible, even if you haven't read a lot of your Bible, the Bible is full of stories of how God's done amazing miracles. Miraculous things. And not just in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament. Things like parting the Red Sea, right? Things like God's people walking around a wall for seven days and them shouting and the walls coming down, like we just sang about. God does miraculous things in the world. Or you jump to the New Testament and in the book of Mark, in just a chapter and a half, we're told that Jesus, in his all-powerfulness, that he has the ability to say, peace be still to the storm, and the storm calms. That he has the ability to say, Come out and cast a demon out of a man, and he has the power to heal the sick. I mean, this is the kind of power that our God has. And I want to tell you this week that I have been confronted with my own small view of God and my lack of belief that God actually is capable of the things that the Bible says he's capable of. And I want to encourage you and challenge you in the same way God has been encouraging and challenging me this week to ask him to help us see him more clearly and more rightly in this way. Because he is way more powerful than we give him credit for. Or should I say, how I don't pray. How many times I just try to fix it or figure it out. And God is like, I have all power. And I'm like, I got this guy. It's like, have you ever had a child in front of you that's trying to do something and they won't let you help them? And you're like, I could do that in like a second. And they're like, ooh, you know, exerting all this energy, trying to push something, right? And you're like, I can help you. Got this. We're the same way with God. God is all powerful. And yet we, as his children, are down here doing our thing, giving it all we got. And we wonder why the results that we're getting are limited. Because we are limited, but God is unlimited. He is an all-powerful. Are you getting the point? Alright, well, if you haven't yet, we're gonna jump in and just get this. But the second part of this is that God can do all his holy will. Now, this is really, really key. This actual phrase comes from uh a catechism. I don't know if you guys use catechisms, if you've heard catechisms. Some of you guys come from backgrounds that maybe they had catechisms where they're just a way of teaching people basic truths about God. Uh typically we use them with children, um, but but adults can use them too. There's a new city catechism out. You can actually download the app and use it. It's a great resource to learn basic theology and ideas about who God is. We've used it with our kids some, but we use this old school catechism that we got from some friends way back, and one of the questions is can God do everything? And the response to that is yes, God can do all his holy will. Now, why does it say God can do all his holy will? Because if you're thinking, if you're using your brain this morning, which I'm hoping all of you are, as soon as I say God's all powerful, then you are probably wrestling a little bit, maybe already wrestling, with if God can do everything, then why doesn't he do some of the things that I think he should be doing? Like fix the injustice in the world or take care of some of the problems that I've given to him in prayer. Why hasn't he done those things? Why, what's wrong with his power in those moments? I'm not going to answer all that for you this morning, okay? I can't. Because I don't know the mind of God completely. But here's what I can say: God's omnipotence is guided by his character. God's omnipotence is guided by his character. He can do all his holy will. The question is, what is his holy will? And you and I don't always know. And may never know until, at least till heaven. You see, God does things that are holy. They are right, they are true, they are good, they are what is ultimately the wisest thing to do. In fact, all of all of God's attributes, we're going to talk about some of his attributes over the coming weeks that are communicable attributes. They're attributes that we actually can demonstrate. So we can actually actually demonstrate things like love, or we can demonstrate things like faithfulness or kindness or mercy or grace, those kind of things. All of God's character traits, his attributes, actually guide, they guide his power. Another way to ask this question, though, is to think about is there anything that God cannot do? Now, if I asked that question, it said, is there anything that God cannot do? Um most people would say, No, he can do anything. Now it's kind of a trick question, though, okay? And here's why. Because the Bible actually gives us some examples of things he doesn't do. Let me give you just a few of them. 2 Timothy 2, 13. It says this if we are faithless, he remains faithful. For he cannot deny himself. He cannot act in a way that is contrary to his nature. Are you with me? So he's faithful because that's who he is. He is a faithful God who keeps his promises. So he can't act in opposition to his promise because that's who he is in his faithfulness. What about this? James 1:13. No one undergoing a trial should say, I am being tempted by God. For God is not tempted by evil, and he cannot, or he himself does not, tempt anyone. Did you notice what it says? God is not tempted by evil. And he doesn't tempt anyone. And there are people who feel like God does these things. He's playing like these dirty tricks on us. But the Bible says he cannot and he will not. The other thing, another verse that spoke to me this week on this issue is Titus 1 2. And again, I know I'm giving you a lot of verses. I encourage you to write them down, come back to them. Even if you have questions, love to have a dialogue with you, have coffee, lunch, or maybe some of our team members could do that. But Titus 1, verse 2 says this in the hope of eternal life, that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began. What else can God not do? He cannot lie. It's not consistent with his nature. So the point that I'm making to you this morning is that his all-powerfulness, his infinite power, his unlimited capacity and strength is guided by his character. And that's a really, really good thing, right? Any of you guys ever watched the movie Bruce Almighty? Some of you are like, yeah, I did. Bruce Almighty, it's such a funny movie. Don't recommend it to everybody. But uh, I always have to make that caveat, right? When you're preaching from the stage. But if you watch what happens, what happens when a human being gets all power? Uh-oh. Because we're, why? Because our character is not okay. Because we aren't all faithful and loving and kind and gracious. We're selfish and prideful. And so if you gave us all power, watch out. And part of the reason why people struggle with God being all-powerful is because we think he's like us. But he's not like us. He's perfect. So his power is never abused, it's never misused, his efforts never misplaced. God is always using his power in a way that brings him glory and produces good in us, even when we don't like it. Even when we struggle with it. Are you with me? And this is hard. This is again, any good understanding of God, any knowledge of God will push us to the precipice. It will push us to holiness. It will push us to humility. Because it will cause us to have to weed through all of our false ideas about who God is. It will weed us all through the things that we have already kind of preconceived notions about who God is. And I realize that for some of you, this is very difficult. I think for all of us at some level, it has been at some point in time in our life. We've had to wrestle with these things. We should wrestle with these things, but we have to come to a place of submitting and yielding to God. So God's omnipotence is guided by his character. Now I want to give you three ways in the scripture, give you more, but three ways specifically, big picture ways, that God's power is revealed to us. Okay? Three things that I think actually really encourage us, and there's some practical personal applications of these. The first one is this God displays his power in creation. God displays his power in creation. Romans chapter 1, verse 20. Paul writes, For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have clearly been seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. If you want to know whether God is powerful or not, look around. Look at the micro and look at the macro. Look at the atoms and look at the expanse of the heavens. And go, wow. Now I realize that for many of us, again, when I talk about being complacent or getting too comfortable with God, for many times we can see that stuff and we're just kind of like, ah. But isn't it amazing how we are captivated by his creation? Go to the beach, look at the sunset, look at the way the world, look up in the sky, like we talked about a couple weeks ago, and see the stars. Go to the mountains and see these amazing mountains. Fly in an airplane, see the earth. God is powerful. He is awesome, and his power is displayed in his creation. In fact, we're told in the Bible that he literally spoke creation into existence. He spoke it into existence. He literally said the words. Genesis 1, verse 3, third verse of the entire Bible, it says, Then God said, Let there be light, and light shot out of the mouth of God. And now we see. That's how powerful this God is that we worship. He is able to literally speak into existence. Everything that we see, he can speak into existence by the word. In fact, Psalm 33, 6 says it this way. This is one of my favorites from Psalm. He says, The heavens were made by the word of the Lord, all the stars by the breath of his mouth. I love that poetic way of saying the breath of his mouth. Literally, he breathed out the stars. God is powerful. He created all things brilliantly, amazingly, intricately. He is working in the finest details of the way that everything operates. It's incredible. That's why science is such a neat field because as they study creation, you're just in awe. You're blown away. We had the opportunity to go to New York City this past year and go to the museum there and just look at some of the natural science museum and to actually look at science and this study. And yes, many of those people who are studying those things have not given God credit for what he's done, but you can't see all of the creatures that God has created and all the things that are there and go, man, this is just some accident. It's unbelievable to see God's power displayed in his creation. God spoke it into existence. But also he sustains it. He sustains creation by his power. Colossians 1:17. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. You want to know why we're not coming apart right now? You want to know why the earth is staying at the exact angle that it needs to stay as it rotates around the sun? Revolves around the sun? Use the word right? You know why? Because God is sustaining it. He's keeping it there. One degree this way, and we burn up, one degree this way, we freeze to death, but God is sustaining it. You want to know why the atoms in your body are all collecting and doing what they're supposed to be doing? Because God is sustaining it. He is sustaining creation. The Bible tells us and reminds us that all things were created by him and for him, and he holds all things together. You want to know why? You're taking a breath right now. God's grace. The reason that heart just keeps beating is God's sustaining power. And as I said, this is not just some far-off, distant thought. But in Psalm 55, too, we're reminded that God sustains us in a very significant way, other than just physically, He says, Cast your burden on the Lord and He will what? Sustain you. That our God can carry burdens that we can't. The burdens that are crushing us, weighing down on us, the broken relationships, the anxieties, the fears, the health issues. The struggles, all that's going on, all the things that weigh you down. He says, Cast those things on me. I can carry it. I got it. Effortlessly, I've got it. He will sustain us. He's that awesome. He's that powerful. In Hebrews 1, verse 3, it just came to mind this week as we look at Jesus specifically as part of the Godhead. It says the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. God is sustaining us. I know that for many human beings, we have taken the stance that we got this, God. Or we are, we give ourselves credit. Or maybe we just don't give anybody credit. We just say this is just exists. I'm telling you today, the reason we are alive, the reason that creation continues on is because God is sustaining it. And at his word, he could end it all. But he's chosen not to yet. And the Bible even tells us that part of the reason he's chosen not to is because it is his desire that more would come to know him. Come to know him as God and worship him as God. So not only does God display his power in the creation, but he also displays his power in the resurrection. Now, we love to talk about the resurrection at Easter, right? But as Christians, every day we should talk about the resurrection. Every single day. Because every day we're reminded that God's power was displayed in the resurrection. And that is a beautiful picture for us of the type of power that God has, that he can actually conquer death. Your enemy, your actual greatest enemy, my greatest enemy, death. And yet he's like, no big thing. Jesus, before he even went to the grave and was resurrected by the Father, already had resurrected people, like Lazarus, which I'm sure some of you guys remember as we taught through that in the book of John. But in the Bible, we're told this in Ephesians 1, verse 20. This is actually Paul's prayer for the people at Ephesus. He says this in verse 20. He demonstrated this power in the Messiah by raising him from the dead and seating him at the right hand, at his right hand in the heavens, far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given him, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. It's pretty awesome, huh? That's the kind of power our God has. There is nothing that is higher, that has greater authority, especially has no, has greater power than our God. And here's what's beautiful. Could have been left at that, but the same power that resurrected Christ from the grave will resurrect us from the grave. If that doesn't encourage you today, I mean, like you and I actually will be resurrected because Jesus was resurrected by the power of God, and that same power will resurrect us. In fact, that's not just my words. It says this in Romans 8. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, and this is key, if he lives in you, not he may not live in all of you, but if he is in you, because you have submitted your life, you've surrendered your life to Christ, you've received the gift of the Holy Spirit, he says this if he lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his spirit who lives in you. That's awesome. That's awesome. We're going to get resurrected because of God's power. Now, I just have to say a word about this before I move on. Because I see so many Christians, and I fall in the same category, so much of the time we live our lives focused on the here and now, the temporary. So our pursuit of pleasure, our pursuit to avoid pain, our and really pursue comfort, our pursuit to have everything, experience everything here and now, is really driven by a lack of eternal perspective. But I want to remind you guys today, as Christians, because we have to do this. In fact, Hebrews even tells us that as the day approaches of Christ's return, we should be encouraging each other and spurring one another on more and more. And one of the things we need to remind each other of is that this life is not all that there is. That whatever pleasures, whatever successes, whatever joys and comforts in this life you have or are pursuing, those don't even come close to what it's going to be like when Christ gives us a resurrected life with Him forever. And we have to keep that in mind, right? Because we in America, we're like masters at trying to block out the fact that we are all going to die. And that we are all going to eventually crater, and all the stuff that we have is going to be somebody else's stuff, and then eventually it's all going to rot. But we put so much stock in that. But we have the power of the resurrection in us by the work of the Holy Spirit, and all of our stuff that's going to rot and goes away, we're going to live forever. Because God is that powerful. And He's going to allow us to be with Him forever. I just need to be reminded of that sometimes because sometimes my stress and my anxiety and my fear are based on things that are temporary. Those things being attacked, those things being disrupted, those things being pulled away from me, that's an indicator that I'm not believing the truth about what really my hope lies. And I understand, I don't want to be harsh when I say those things, guys. I'm with you in the trenches. We are told to put all of our stock in this. In fact, there's even Christians who say, your job is to live your best life now. Listen. Our best life isn't now. We are working through a hard, difficult life, and we can't enjoy great things that God gives us now. We can enjoy a good meal, we can enjoy a good vacation, we can enjoy a good experience with friends, all those things. We shouldn't shun those things. We shouldn't say the goal is to be the most unhappy people on the planet. Then we're true Christians. But do remember that those things are a shadow, that they are just a small little foretaste of the great things to come by our awesome God. But God also not only displays his power through creation and resurrection, but he displays his power through transformation. In transformation. What do I mean? Again, I'm just being honest on my observation of myself and other Christians. Many times I see believers convinced or at least resigned to the fact that they cannot change. They feel stuck in addictions. They feel stuck in behaviors and attitudes that they just feel like they can't change. Or they see other people around them and they feel like, man, that person is never going to change. And I want to tell you today that we see God's work, God's power in transformation. First, we see him in this way, Ephesians 2, 1 through 6. And you were dead in your trespasses and sin, in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient. Now, what do we just just really quickly make sure we understand what's being said here? He's saying that when you're born and you're born with a sin nature, you're born naturally inclined to do what you want to do and to ignore God, to reject God, that you are spiritually dead. Now, um some people would argue, no, I'm not, you know, I just I'm just a bad person, but I'm becoming a good person. Uh this week I had the opportunity to watch a classic movie that I'm sure all of you guys have watched. Uh Princess Bride. Yeah. So, in fact, I was a really good dad this week and not only watched Princess Bride, but Nacho Libre with my kids. So they are now cultured, okay? Um, you can pray for them. And um, but we were watching Princess Bride, and then there's a moment, you know, for those of you that know it, other user guys are like, I can't believe you said that. Um, where he says, Oh, he's only half dead, right? He's only part dead. He's like, he's not fully dead. Listen, when you were in your sin, you were fully dead. There was no like you were mostly dead. Okay? You were fully dead, I was fully dead, and there was no hope. In fact, what he says here, and this is strong language, he says we were enemies of God. We were under the influence of the evil one, the ultimate enemy of God, Satan himself, the prince of the air, as he calls him in this text, reminding us that he does have power and he does have influence, and we were dead. And we were, there was no way that we could bring ourselves to life. But guess what he says? In the face of that, he says, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love he had for us, he made us alive. Haha. He made us alive with the Messiah, even though we were dead in our trespasses. You are saved by grace. Oh man. I can't wait till we get to talk about the grace of God. But we have to realize that the grace of God is beautiful because in our sin we're dead. What makes God's grace so appealing and awesome and amazing is because without it, we were dead and we were enemies and we were headed for eternal destruction. But God in his grace and mercy steps in. And I talk to so many Christians, so many people, they don't say this outright, but there's an implied entitlement that we deserve only God's goodness and not his wrath. In fact, I think for some of you, if you were like me, last week was a little bit unsubtling. We talk about God and we talk about his presence in hell. And there were some people having conversations about that this week in our life groups. And part of the struggle there is because we do not like the idea that God is actually wrathful and just towards sin. And we're going to address those attributes. And I'm not telling you that those are fun attributes to talk about, but we need a whole view of God. And we need to understand that God took dead people and made them living people, spiritually speaking, and giving them eternal life by his power. But not only that, we are no longer held captive to our sin and its consequences, and we can change. We are no longer held captive to our sin and its consequences, and we can change. We see God's transformative power in our sanctification. That's the word for we're becoming more like Jesus, like who we were originally intended to be. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9. I hesitated to read this verse, but I think you've got to see the stark contrast here. If you were with us last year, we talked through the book of 1 Corinthians, and when we got to this text, it's a little bit culturally in the face of what people say about how I can live. Even as a Christian, like God doesn't really, I've heard people say things like this. God really doesn't care about my behavior. He doesn't really care about what I do. That's not true. Because in Christ we are new and we are changed and we are being changed. He's not primarily caring about your behavior, he's not primarily focused on your behavior, but your behavior reflects where your heart is, what you really believe about him, and he is he in charge. 1 Corinthians 6, let me read it to you. Don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom? Do not be deceived. No sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or anyone practicing homosexuality, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God's kingdom. These are not my words, guys. These are the words from Scripture. These are God's words. For us. Not just for back then, but here and now today. But guess what? He says, and some of you used to be like this. But what happened? You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God. Does that mean that we don't still struggle at times with these things? We can. Christians can still struggle with sin. But we have a power where we are no longer stuck or enslaved to that sin. And some people have given up and just said, you know what? I'm just going to wait till heaven and God will fix it then. Salvation is not just something that's going to happen then and there. It's happening here and now. Salvation is happening. We are becoming more like Christ today. And it's by the power of God that we are being sanctified. We are being made new. We're being, we are actually having the capacity to be who He's already said that we are in Christ. And I want to encourage you today, because some of you walked in the room. I mean, I hear things on a regular basis. This is part of my job. I hear people about pornography addictions. I hear people talk about hurting themselves, cutting themselves. I hear about addictions about fear of people, walking into a room and being so stressed about what other people think about them, and they just can't get beyond that. They fear people so much. I hear people talk about their marriages and how their relationship is just having so much issue and they feel like that they're just stuck in patterns of behavior where they just offend one another over and over and there's no hope. I hear people talk about their money problems and how they just don't know how to manage money well. No matter how hard they try, they never have enough. I hear people talk about things like just uh relational problems with their extended family, and that their family just won't ever get them. They won't ever. And I mean, I'm just telling you right now, even today, I am wrestling in my heart with a conversation I'm gonna have this afternoon with some people, then it's a hard conversation. And part of me, I had to wrestle down. Do I believe that God can change that situation? And the answer is yes, he can. Yes, he can. And he can change your circumstance, he can change your situation. Now, I want to be very careful here because God doesn't always change our circumstances or our situations exactly like we want him to, because remember, God can do all his holy will. And there is a mystery to all this. We're not God. But when we pray, do we pray as believing that God actually can move mountains? It's not the size of our faith in that God. It's is he the object of it? Is he the one who we actually believe can and will do supernatural things? I was praying with someone earlier this morning whose husband's heart is hard as a rock. It's to the point that literally he is now like antagonizing her, making fun of her because she's trying to follow Jesus. And my heart broke. And what do I say to her? Like, what can I say to her? Oh, I get it, I understand. I don't get it, I don't understand. I'm not walking through that, but I can say this God is with you in it, and he is powerful enough to change that hard heart. He can do it. And I'm trusting that God can do that today for you in the situations and the circumstances that you face. In fact, because God is all powerful, we who are his children can live with an unshakable hope, a supernatural strength, and a total provision. Let me say those again. We can live as his children, and this is key. If you're not one of his children, if you have never put your trust in Christ, if you've never surrendered and submitted to him, you're not God's child. You're his creation, but you're not his child. There's a difference. But if you're his child and the Holy Spirit is in you, then you can have an unshakable hope. You can have supernatural strength, and you can have total provision. I want to just give you three verses that speak to this exact issue because I watch so many Christians and I see people who say that they are following Jesus, but they have very little joy or peace or hope. And I want you to know today in Christ we can have that. Romans 15, 13, one of my favorite verses that speaks to this issue. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. You can have unshakable hope if you're a child of God. Not only that, but Colossians 1, verse 29, as Paul is writing there, he says, I labor for this. What is this? It's his mission. He's trying to do ministry. He wants people to know Jesus. He wants to present all these people to God and say, these people are mature. He is working hard. But notice what he says. He says, I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me. How many of you are tired of trying to do God's job? Are you? Because so many of us are trying to do what only he can do. God can do in a millisecond what we can do in a lifetime. We will work and work and work. When are we going to lay it down and say, God, you're powerful? You can do this. You can change these hearts. You can resurrect the situation. God can provide supernatural strength. Many of us struggle to believe that. We're taught to be self-made people, to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, to be good moral people on our own, find our own religious standing. Listen, we cannot be who God's called us to be without his power. We're dead in the water. We're just any other religion. Trying to climb our way up the mountain. But in Christ, we had the power of the Holy Spirit. We have the power of God at work in us, the omnipotent God living in us. Crazy thought. But true thought. His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness. His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness. Do you feel like God's holding out on you? Do you feel like he hasn't given you everything? He has. In Christ, he has given you everything you need for life and godliness. Are you drawing upon that? Are you convinced that he actually has offered that to you? Are you receiving by faith the power and the strength that you need? Our God is awesome. His power is limitless. He is not worthy of just lip service on Sundays and singing a couple of songs to him. He is worthy of our lives. He is worthy of bowing down. In fact, the Bible tells us very plainly that everyone ultimately will bow down before this powerful, Almighty God. But the beautiful thing is that as his children, we can call this beautiful, amazing, awesome, powerful God who can tell lightning bolts where to go. We can call him father. We can call him daddy because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and his resurrection? Is there any circumstance that you've given up on where you said, God, you just can't do it? Is there any person that you've given up on? Any person in your life you just said, well, God, you just can't change them. They're just stuck. Is there any behavior or struggle in your own life you've given up on? Battling something, you just say, Well, God, I just can't believe you can do it. You stop praying about it. Listen, God's saying, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, because I'll give you rest. Rest in my power. In fact, Paul says it this way: he says, My grace is sufficient in your weakness. My power is made perfect in your weakness. We can say we are weak, but he is strong. Is the Jesus Love Me song that we teach our kids? It's got beautiful little lyrics. If they are weak, that would be weak. But he is strong. God is strong. He's there. Will we turn to him? That's the question. Will we look to him? Or will we just keep trying to crank this out ourselves? Let's pray. Father God, thank you so much. That we are your sons and daughters. For those of us who are in Christ, we are children of the Most High God. We were dead in our sin. And you brought us to life by your power. And God, I pray that even in this moment, God, today, you would remind every one of us in this room just how awesome that you are. Just help us to take another step into that really reality, that you would expand our view of you today. And God, help us also, as we wrestle with trusting you, that your power is guided by your character. That God, you are not just powerful, but you're good. You're not just powerful, but you are loving. You're not just powerful, but you are gracious. God, I pray that even in this moment, by your Holy Spirit's power, you would reveal yourself to all of us in this room in a fresh way. God, that the church, and not just Point Community Church, but your church, your bride, would awaken and rise and worship you like you deserve. The powerful God, the Almighty God who reigns. We pray for that help this morning. We love you. We praise in your name, Jesus, amen.