God is Still So Big

I love you and love Jesus and his Word. So we're going to end my season here the same way we started in God's Word, in the book of Ephesians. And I know Pastor Bryce just prayed, but will you let me pray for us again? We're looking at a prayer today, and so it feels appropriate. Let me pray, Father, thank you.

That we can gather, that we have a country where we're free. That's amazing. I think this week, all the things that we've heard and seen and remembered for those who are around. And September 11th, I pray for people that have died so that we can have freedom, which points us ultimately to Jesus, who died so we could be free from self and sin and death and have life. And my prayer for today is that somebody who doesn't at this moment have a relationship with your son Jesus would by the end of this moment, and that those who do would long for your son Jesus more as a result of our time together.

It's in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Well, there are boxes up here. And the reason why the boxes are up here is because boxes are such a regular part of our lives. And I don't know if you've thought about that very much, but different boxes can elicit different emotions based on who has them, what's in them.

For instance, pizza box. There have been a lot of things I've experienced in 20 years. One of them, Pastor Brad Altice, has been one of our pastors for most of the time that I've been here. And I didn't realize how much he loved pizza until the president of my college came to speak one time as a guest speaker back at the movie theater. And he just made a passing comment, there's no such thing as bad pizza.

And I thought, yeah, there is. I've eaten a lot of it. This is one of them. This is not a sponsored thing, but usually if somebody walks in with the pizza box, they're your friend. I don't like Scott.

I don't want to talk to him. Oh, he brought pizza today. Well, I'm surprised. Just say hi, you know, to go in there and hang out with him a little bit. But when your kids open up the box, do you ever have the box like this?

And the kids go, so there's none left? No, there is. You can't see it. Like, kids ask some interesting questions. Bro, bro.

Literally, like, low key. Don't be doing that.

And so pizza box is usually like a box. That's exciting. So a little dopamine rush Then you get one of these boxes. It's a moving box. It's been used before.

And whether you are moving or you own a truck, this is a stressful box, because who wants to move? And maybe it's not a good goodbye at your job like mine is here. It's a you're fired. Pack up your desk box. You know what I mean?

There could be a box like that inside. That box came from last service. A shoebox. That's an interesting one. At my house, we got a few shoeboxes up here, male and female shoe boxes.

And I think it's an interesting dynamic. When my wife comes home with shoe boxes, not usually singular shoeboxes, but she starts to explain herself. I didn't ask. I didn't ask a question. Oh, I was gonna get one pair.

Then it was other than. But then it was buy two, get one free. So I got this other thing and then. But I saved $80. The credit card says you spent 220.

Oh, but it would have been 300. So you think we're making money on this deal? Okay. It's an interesting dynamic. Some of you are excited about shoeboxes, and some of you are like, quit talking about that.

I don't want to go shopping after. Some of you have these Amazon boxes that come some daily, some multiple times a day. And I think it's an amazing phenomenon how Amazon has gotten us as adults to feel like it's Christmas on, like a Tuesday and we paid for it. It's like, there's Amazon package. There's Amazon package.

Oh, oh, dishwasher fluid. Or you'll order one. Do you ever get this from Amazon where you order something and it's in a box, but you're like, what is all this paper? What is all this stuff? Oh, yeah.

Thanks for keeping my power cord safe. It's like.

But have you. You got boxes all around. Like, there's products you buy and things you have and experiences. And I've talked about a few of them here. But think about how frequently we see boxes, and it's not just even physical boxes.

You have an inbox, right? Did me a stretchy out. Didn't mean a stress shout. It's not Monday yet, you know, and you probably have a soapbox, the thing you're passionate about talking about periodically. And somebody's probably told you not to open Pandora's box.

If you're a sports fan, maybe you weren't able to watch the game, but you looked at the box score to see the summary of all that happened in that moment. And when you get things done, you gotta check that box. And when people ask questions about you fill out the box. Boxes are all over the place. In fact, it's one of the ways that we relate with one another is that we put people in boxes and we label them based on political beliefs, based on jobs, based on the kind of house they live in, which church they go to.

What? Well, they don't go to church. Well, the religion they do believe in, whether they believe anything. And it helps us feel like we understand them. But do they ever get outside of the box?

Isn't it interesting? We use that language whenever we think someone is weird or they mess up our control. Outside of the box. Because your elementary school teacher is at the grocery store, she's out of your box. What are you doing here?

You eat? I thought you just wrote on the board.

It's interesting, isn't it? It's really dangerous when we put God in a box, even if it's our biggest box. And I wanted to give you a visual illustration. And I thought, well, I could pour a bunch of water in there for the statement I want you to remember today, but actually to illustrate it, it would be like taking a box like this and trying to get all the ocean into it. Because the problem with your box is your box leaks.

And God's too big for any box, whether you're a Calvinist or an Arminian, whether you're Baptist or Presbyterian, whether you like NC State or unc, whether you are anything in relation to God, that you make him like you, you put him in a box and it's too small, your box leaks. That's the problem with him. He just can't be contained. But we think and have you ever said statements like this, that's not how God works. If you do this, God will.

You think you can control God? Have you ever thought it was convenient that God has all the same political beliefs as you, likes all the same music styles that you do, believes the time and version of the Bible to read is the one you read, even though he wrote it in Aramaic and Greek and Hebrew. Okay. Hmm, Interesting. God must listen to the same podcast as you.

I don't know. I don't know how it happens. Or you've taken the Creator and done him a favor he didn't ask for and remade him in your image when you're supposed to be reflecting his. And that's dangerous. And so today we're going to be talking about how big God is from the same passage.

I preached 20 years ago on March 4, 2007, when we launched Southbridge and I preached a message called My God is so Big. Today's message is not the same message, but it's from the same passage in the title of this message today I've titled God is still so big. It's 20 years later.

I was right 20 years ago, but I wasn't even a fraction of the way there. I'm still not even close to a quarter of the way there, but I think I have a different perspective than I did then. Same truth, more layers. Ephesians chapter three. I'll just read it to you right now and then we'll back up and do the context of the passage after that.

Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 14. Interesting talking about boxes, because what Paul's going to do is show us the dimensions here of trying to grasp God. But then he says, God leaks. Listen. For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

I pray that out of his glorious riches and think about that is Elon Musk is loaded. God must laugh. God created there was nothing. Everything that exists. All the galaxies we've yet to think maybe we could discover.

He made that he owns all the stones and all the stars. It's all his. And out of his glorious riches, Paul's praying that he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being. Why? So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may a power. The power keeps getting mentioned together with all the Lord's holy people. Why? To grasp how wide. Here's the dimensions.

And long and high and deep. Every one of these boxes has dimensions height and length and width and depth. And we think that whether we put a thousand toy soldiers in a big box or whether we put a pillow and stuff it into a small box and get all the air out of it and then takes a couple of days. Whether we however we use makes us feel like we have understanding and control. And Paul's praying that you being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints to put God in your box.

Nope. Read on. To grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you being filled to the measure. This is the ocean being poured into a box that you limited with dimensions on your time and mind ability to be in places, your perspective on everything that you fully limited would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of the unlimited God.

Not containable. And so if you came here today thinking you had a grasp on that, I want to rebuke you. And if you receive it, I want to encourage you because there's a lot left ahead. Amen. Twenty years ago, when I stood before a movie theater of folks, there were 179 people there that day.

179 adults there that day. I was told. I did not see, nor did I count. There were 220 people total at the service. I don't believe that number, to be candid with you.

I think that we counted. You know, the lady that was pregnant, she was probably having twins. So that's 3, 6, 9, 12. Your cousins are coming late. We got them.

Yeah. It's like, don't do a thing. But I remember standing there and we have a picture of it. And so if you want to know how much less handsome I was then, there it is. There it goes.

Kidding. There was less of me then, though. I was smaller. Carbs. There's a carbs.

And we were there at the movie theater, and we were being advertised as a contemporary church with that old, old hymn up on the screen. And some of you came to church as a result of that. Some of you came to Christ as a result of that article written by a Jewish lady that's a friend of mine, How God works. Huh? A group of people that didn't really know what they were doing, deciding, what if we just tried to live out the Bible?

What if we didn't just teach it so that people get smarter, and we just actually said, what would it. Look, how would it change our relationships? How would it change us? How could it change this city? And I just had a dream.

The dream was, what if we actually tried to do what the Bible says and not try to assimilate into church, into Christianity. That's what Paul brought to Ephesus. This prayer starts with this interesting phrase in verse 14. For this reason, if you've been coming to our church very long, you know that I've told you before, there's words that you can't just start a conversation with. However.

But, but, but what's. What are you contrasting. Therefore, this is a phrase like that. For this reason. For what reason?

I have to know what came ahead of this to understand what's coming after this. For what reason? Well, if you jump up to chapter three in verse one, you'll see he also says there for this reason. So then you got to go back further. Then in chapter one, he starts praying there.

In verse 15, he says, for this reason. So you got to go back further than chapter one. Yup. In fact, if you were here two weeks ago, I was preaching out of the book of acts. And about 10 years earlier, the Apostle Paul had gone to Ephesus, and he had started this church that he's writing a letter to right here.

It was the church that he had spent the most time of any church he'd ever been at in his life, with years, not months. Some places he was only at weeks. But he spent years with these people, had deep relationships, but he hadn't seen them in 10 years. He's writing to them, and you have to go all the way back to that. In Acts chapter 19 and Acts chapter 19, you see what happens.

That Ephesus is a big place surrounding themselves and thinking that they can control and contain because they're very religious power, spiritual power. Power to control the circumstances around them, power to have influence on their own lives because of their connection with deity, which means God, but they have a false God that they've created. Artemis. Paul goes there and he talks about Jesus, and some people get saved. And when you truly get saved, when you truly get rescued from your sins, when you truly experience forgiveness, it's not about learning what are the good words and bad words, or how should you dress for the thing, or what time do you show up for an event?

Or when should you read your Bible? Should I read my Bible? Do I have to read my Bible? What. How often do you pray?

How do you pray? I don't want to pray in public. All that stuff you can learn without ever knowing Jesus.

I remember there was a gentleman who came to our church in the early days, before we were even at the movie theater. I remember people coming up to me like, oh, that guy's. Oh, you want that guy here? He's not a Christian. He's really rich.

And I'm like, this is what. Okay, that's. I'm not glad he's not a Christian. Thankfully, he's got money, but I'm not asking for it. We were on the phone one time, and I said, tell me about your spiritual journey.

And he said, oh, my favorite verse is John 3:16. And he quoted it word for word. I said, that's interesting. But do you. Do you know Jesus?

He literally had no answer. I'd been to Bible studies, been other churches. The wife was a pillar in the spiritual community.

And that was a regular experience for me with people having conversations with people who knew A lot about Jesus, but you just sensed. I don't. Like, I know my wife better than anybody here. And if you came up to me and started telling me facts about my wife, but you had never spent time with her, I would know. No.

You know, those of you who are with Jesus, do you sometimes sense some people, they know stuff about them, but no, we don't know anybody's heart. But that's where the phrase over churched under Jesus came from. They came to a city as a missionary, like Paul did in Ephesus, and I felt like these people love church and they love the Bible. They even tell stories about Jesus and can quote Jesus, but I don't think they know him. Because it's really interesting to me that their box happens to ignore all the stuff about Jesus that would violate the etiquette of Southern hospitality.

Well, Jesus would never call someone a name. Have you read the Bible?

Well, he's gonna be turning the other cheek. Yeah, he says turn the other cheek, but he also turns over tables. I mean, it's a discernment situation here. But you're, you know, you're just supposed to, you know, pray for. No, you're supposed to do stuff for them.

Walk an extra mile, Give them your jacket, huh? I don't think Jesus would say, come to my house sometime and not mean it.

And so what I saw was a facade of Jesus that we've tried to attack. Not with programs and not with personality, not with buildings, but with Jesus. And so we wanted to make a big deal about Jesus at this church, not about denominations. And God used that foundationally for our church. Not about programs, not about who's on staff and who's not on staff, not about what time something's happening and who's happy about it and who's not happy about it and all those things.

If you do anything that requires any faith, someone will be upset and someone will grow.

But if you stay comfortable. Paul wasn't staying comfortable. He goes here. They want to kill him. They have a stadium in Acts, chapter 19, where they're chanting for two hours because he's attacked their God.

But it's not Artemis. It's their money and their power. They've just named money and power Artemis. For two hours, they chant, great is Artemis of Ephesus. That's our God.

Can you imagine that? For two hours straight. How many of you here have been to a football game? They're four hours usually. This is a Wolfpack game on Friday.

It got delayed because of lightning. But when I showed up, A young man had just scored a touchdown. 65 yard run. That's cool. Well, it was really loud for a long time.

And then the next time I got the ball, a guy got a six yard run and they said another wolf pack. First down. And then people started chanting wolf. That's right. Let's do it again.

Woof. It just kept happening. They scored 73 points in that game. It happened a lot. The other team scored no points.

So no. NC State fans weren't even mad. I've never done in 20 years. I don't think I've seen that. Not mad at all.

Wow. Miracle.

So what are they doing when they're yelling wolf pack? They're not just cheering on their team, they're chanting their identity.

That's what was happening in Acts 19.

You're messing with our power and our money and that's who we are. So that's why Paul talks about power so much in the book of Ephesians. And that's why he starts off in Ephesians chapter one with identity. Listen to this. Ephesians chapter one, verse three.

We'll start with verse three. He says that we've been adopted into God's family. Can't find the verse and I lost my spot. But it's on here. I've got on the screen.

Okay. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world. But did he know you were going to mess up so bad? Did he know you were going to be. I mean, he's lucky to have a couple of you.

But chose us before the creation of the world to be holy. That means set apart and blameless. Not that you are blameless, but in his sight. Why? Because of his love.

Because of that verse that guy quoted to me who didn't know Jesus. For God so loved the world that he gave his son Jesus. It wasn't because you did anything. It wasn't. You really needed it.

So he had to do something. No. None of us got any shots. But he picked us in love. For what?

What did he pick us for? He predestined us for adoption. Do you know what happens when you're adopted? Your identity changes. Everybody here has this in common.

You were born. There's no cyborg that just. And there you are. It was. You were born.

Everybody here was born. And you were born into a family. And you didn't get any say in the manner. Just waiting in case somebody said amen. That's right.

With my choice. Wasn't my choice. I don't like my brother anyway. My cousin, my uncle. Uncle.

Man.

When you were born again. Because that's the context of John, chapter three, that famous verse. You must be born again. And here's how you're born again. You believe in the One.

That's all you gotta do is believe in the One who came because he loved you so much. He came for you. But what about. And how come. And what if this happened?

I don't know about this. Believe in the One who is love and loved you and came for you. And you'll be adopted. You'll get a new father, God. You'll become a new creation and a new identity.

And that's what the poem In Ephesians, chapter 1 unpacks. For 13 verses, verse 15, Paul starts praying. It's the first prayer that we see in the book of Ephesians. And it starts the same way this prayer starts for this reason. Huh?

We've heard that for this reason. Ever since I heard about your faith. Now there's some people here he's never even met because it's been 10 years since he was in Ephesus. Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God's people. What an amazing church.

Don't answer this. Do you love all of God's people? Even the ones that you think are a little too. Too.

They're a little too strict or a little too loose. They're not your. They're not in your box. Do you love God's people who don't fit your box, who believe God works in ways you don't think he works or uses people you don't think he uses or can save people? God wouldn't do that.

I mean, he could, but he didn't.

Love all God's people. All God's people. Because the big miracle he's going to talk about in chapter three, right before our passage, is all God's people from all different tribes and nations and tongues and preferences and political persuasions and praise be to the Lord Jesus, Grandfather, he's our Father.

I've not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. So Paul's been praying for them probably for all 10 years. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, so he's God and he's Father, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom. There you have the Holy Spirit give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. So that you may know him better.

The word that's used there for no means more than just knowledge. It means experience. That you would experientially know him better. Hang out with him, spend time with him, be around him, pick up his accent, understand how he responds in his mannerisms. I pray that the eyes of your heart, Jesus enlightened, in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.

The riches. Wait, there's riches again. Because it's in our passage too. And remember, the people of Ephesus worship money. And he's been talking about power, the riches of his glorious inheritance in this holy people, those set apart people.

You're different than those people. It's a different riches. It's a different power. Hmm. And then look what he says next.

And it's incomparably great power. There it is again. That's a theme. Remember, when things are repeated, they're emphasized. It's like he's putting exclamation points or yelling.

There's great power for us who believe. It's not accessible for everyone. Only the ones who did the John 3:16 thing Jesus came, loves everybody, died for everybody. But only the ones who believe have eternal life. Only the ones who believe have this power.

So if you believe, it's talking to you. If not, this could be you. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead. When I preached this message on March 4, 2007, I titled the message My God is so Big, based on a children's song. Now, I didn't know what I know now, but I knew a lot of other stuff other than children's songs.

Just so you know. I had gotten. I was educated far beyond my intelligence, had lots of classes, lots of experiences. But the children's song goes like this. My God is so big, so strong and so mighty.

There's nothing my God cannot do. The mountains are His Talk about His glorious riches.

The valleys are His. The stars are his handiwork too. My God is so big, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do. Children's song simple truth, Profound implications.

Do you know what it means? The problem with your box is it leaks. I asked the people that day, if you could ask God to do one thing, what would it be? And I asked them to write it down. And people wrote down things like, save my prodigal child.

Bring them back. Heal this impossible scenario.

Reconcile my marriage. Help me forgive, Help me to know peace, Cure my anxiety, fix this. Lots of Problems with details and content. Help me find a spouse, reverse my infertility. If I asked you to answer that question today, if you actually did believe that no box can contain.

I'm not even. This building, not a denomination, not your belief system. If no box could contain him, anybody's explanation of them couldn't contain them. What would you ask him to do? Write it down for your own benefit.

Put in your Bible and pull it out in 20 years. See how you've changed. See what he did. Write in the margins, Write yourself a note. Put it in your.

You know, if you're using the Bible app, in the Bible app, put it somewhere for you. I don't need to know the answer. I'm going to ask you to turn it in. It might be a terrible request. He might do the opposite of what you said.

For your good. I don't know. But he knows what you want. So be honest. Do you think he can do it?

He says here he exerted his might. My God is so big, so strong and so mighty. His mighty strength he exerted. When he raised Christ from the dead. We.

He just talked about that. Power is in us. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you. Could anyone ever guess that? You know how they'd guess it?

In Galatians, chapter five, it's called the fruit of the Spirit. That you have a self control that's unexplainable. Not that you're just disciplined. You have beyond your physical and mental ability, control of yourself. A love, not you love.

And it's kind of a trans. A love like God. An unexplainable love, an uncontainable love, joy, peace. That's possible. The power that raised Christ from the dead is inside of you.

What are you putting down? What are you writing down for your prayer? You see to him at the right hand. And this is how powerful it is in the heavenly realms. Far above Artemis.

Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is involved not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God. Place all things under his feet, including Southbridge, including your prodigal. Including the medical situation, financial loss of Job. And appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body.

The fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Interesting. That's the prayer in chapter one. Chapter two summarizes the gospel. You were dead in your trespasses and sins. But I was a pretty good kid.

I didn't do that much. I got saved when I was three. You were a child of wrath. You have no hope. Every person who hears my voice, from Mother Teresa to Hitler, Billy Graham, Jeffrey Dahmer, without hope, apart from Christ.

But then you tried really hard and you assimilated into the church. That's not what chapter two says. It says for by grace, you didn't do anything to earn it. You couldn't deserve it. That's incredible news.

If you think you've done too much, that should wreck you. If you're self righteous, you've done nothing to deserve your salvation. You just believe it's by faith, not of works. Or you'd brag about it. Your faith isn't even works.

Let's put into action. When you place the weight of your life into the hands of your savior, get a new identity. That's why chapter three starts with for this reason. But then Paul's a little add. He's starting his prayer there.

And then he goes on this little rant I can identify. I've sat down before to do work. And then I'm like, well, the curtains are messed up. Ordering something on Amazon, doing this thing over here. Oh, there's squirrels outside.

Go take a picture. End of the day. Didn't even check the email. Okay, here we go. Paul does that for 13 verses, but he's talking about the mystery of the gospel.

And the mystery is this that you and I can be in. How wild is that? That even there's a cosmic play going on where angels can't understand it, but they're blown away. Every time we baptize somebody here self Bridge, all of heaven rejoices every time. That doesn't get old.

Nope. It's for this reason I kneel before my father. New family. See, now you can understand the prayer a little bit better. Is for this reason that I kneel before the Father from whom all of us got our names in heaven and on earth derives its name, I pray.

And here's the request that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power. Interesting. He keeps talking about this power because remember what was going on in Acts chapter 19. Because they were mad because they're losing money and power. But they were praising Artemis as the money and the power.

And he's going, no. As a believer in Christ, you. You have the power that raised Jesus from the dead, alive and works. And you and everything is under that authority and under that power that's in you. And for this reason.

But I got this other stuff I got to tell you, so great. But for this reason, I Got this other stuff I got to tell you. So great. But for this reason, I'm praying for you. Oh, by the way, Paul's also in jail when he prays this.

What did you write down? Studies show. So I'm not picking on you because I'm thinking you're bad people. Studies show that over. It's like.

I don't know, it's like 80 something percent of the things that we pray about, about fixing circumstances around us. Heal this disease, change my spouse so they wouldn't be such an idiot. And they could be more like Jesus, like me. Do this thing over here, make sure that I have save that person. I mean, that'd be like, awesome if you really save that person and do this thing.

Paul's in jail. First observation is he's not praying for himself. I think I would be. I'd like to think I wouldn't be, but I'm pretty sure I would be. Can I get a better mattress?

Can I get like a comfort mattress or something? Better food? How about I can get out. Can you open the doors one time? Nobody just do that tonight?

Nope. Instead, he's praying for them. People he hasn't seen in 10 years. And he's not praying about their circumstances.

He's praying about what's going on in them. And that's the first point today that God's still so big that he's still doing a work in us. When I stood and preached 20 years ago, this passage I talked about what could happen, the dream of what could be and should be. And that Raleigh people wouldn't just move here because the traffic's not that bad and the education's pretty good and we're two hours from the beach and two hours from the mountains and Chamber of Commerce speech, which you're in the Chamber of Commerce. We love you.

We hope you know Jesus. But there's more than that. What if they saw our good deeds and glorified not us, but our Father who's in heaven, and then they were drawn to him and that we would become a city on a hill whose light shines because we have the light of Christ in us. And read the Beatitudes if you want to know what that looks like. It's not that you have a Rolls Royce and everything you do goes awesome.

Blessed are those who are persecuted. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are those. That means happy makarios.

You want to know the path to happiness? It's the opposite of what you're being told on Instagram, stop thinking about yourself. Start pursuing God, and he'll handle the rest. The way we say it here is enjoy God. And I wanted that to happen so bad.

And I'll tell people, like, everybody. We want everybody in our church. It was like 2010. So on everybody in our church, to have one person, who's your one? We had T shirts said, who's your one?

DVDs, I did videos. We did all kinds, like a campaign not to get money to get you, to win people to Jesus.

And I learned a lesson a couple years later, one that my friend J.D. greer would steal it and have the whole Southern Baptist Convention do it. So I gave him a hard time about it. And then a whole bunch of people heard the gospel. What a jerk.

Me, not him. And.

And then I realized, you know what? I think I'm heaping on people burdens that they can't carry because a bunch of these people are over churched. Even the ones that go to my church and under Jesus. But now they're out leading people to Jesus, so now they think for sure they're going to heaven. Nope.

Paul even talks about that in the Philippians. You don't have to be a Christian to lead somebody to Christ. You can do the task. Same as you can memorize Bible verses. Same as you can do all the moral stuff and clean up your act and quit smoking and quit swearing and wear, you know, chinos, whatever.

Whatever it is you think a Christian does that are only made with, you know, right labor and the thing and. Well, I can't keep up. I'm just staying inside my house.

He doesn't want you just to do stuff for him. He wants to change you from the inside out. And that's why Paul prays this prayer the way he does, because he knows that I didn't know it 20 years ago. Now I know it. And that's why we say we want you to experience spiritual transformation.

That means inside your change. And we don't have to tell you to go tell people about Jesus. You just do it. Do you know why? Because everybody talks about what they love.

Wolf, he is risen, right? Not to make you worship Jesus, not to tell you the right way to do that. It overflows out of your time with Jesus. That's what Sunday should be. Did Bryce do the songs I like?

Oh, no. I wish we had this instrument instead of that one. And I just want to talk about how awesome he is. I don't care if my wife wears a dress or, you know, wears Sweatpants or wears. I'm like, she's beautiful.

I just love her. So God said yes to your prayer? Said no to your prayer? Okay. He's better than me, so he's got to figure it out.

I'm worshiping him. But sometimes it's hard to worship. Yeah. And if you've read the Psalms, even when you're mad at him, isn't he awesome?

Well, he doesn't answer this question. You think you've thought of a question he doesn't already know? You know he doesn't have a beginning, right? And you're like, 40. It's got to be so cute.

Has your kid ever come to you and told you how to make a meal? They're four. Mom, you're not doing the spaghetti sauce right. Oh, okay. Tell me more.

It must be cute when we tell God how he's doing it wrong.

So this prayer, he's not just praying you'd be awesome. He's praying you'd be transformed to be more like Jesus. Notice he's praying for them and its inner change. I pray that out of his glorious riches. So this is more than you can handle.

He would strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being. That's not a workout plan. You know, PX90, CrossFit, whatever the things are, you know, whatever all that stuff is. Not that this is. As you get older, you keep getting stronger.

So you're born again. You gotta learn how to walk with Jesus. You gotta learn how to eat some food, you gotta learn how to talk. You gotta learn all the things. But once you get that stuff and you just keep growing, but it doesn't stop in a spiritual journey.

You don't deteriorate and start going reverse unless you stop exercising your faith. Because notice, he says here to be strengthened. How do you get strengthened? Well, anybody here who's gotten stronger, which is everybody here, at some point in your life, you had to do something you hadn't done before. You can't just keep doing the same.

You would never learn how to walk if you stayed inside the walker as a baby. We think you're pretty weird. When you came to church, you'd never learn how to go picky on the body if you didn't do it. And we would probably stop helping you at some point. And so there's a lot of things that spiritually we allow, but we would never allow just normal development.

If you start lifting weights, you know that in order to get stronger, you gotta lift more weights than you're actually capable of. Lifting, and it tears your muscles, and then you recover. That's how spiritual journey goes. You might be in a season of suffering right now. Oh, he's doing work.

And then season will be good. He's giving you a break. The next one's coming. There's more reps. If you didn't learn that one, it'll be the same workout, different packaging.

If you did, that one's gonna seem easy. Because I'm gonna tell you right now, things that were challenging to me 20 years ago are normal now.

But can't just keep doing the same stuff. Some of you have been doing the same thing spiritually, same devotional time, same plan, same thing for 20 years. Well, you are declining. You don't know it. If you start curling 25 pounds at the gym and you're going, wow, my arms are getting so much, eventually they'll stop getting bigger.

That'll get really easy. And if you just keep doing that, you'll start going backwards because you need a new workout. You need more weight, you need more resistance, you need more suffering and recovery and growth. Strengthen us and our inner being. How do you think that happens?

Yeah, you're right. Storms, difficulty, things you don't want, but God knows you need them. But he doesn't want to just work in us. He wants to work through us. And that's what we see in the next part of this passage.

That he not only says that he wants us to be strengthened in our inner being, but he wants us to be rooted and established and rooted is interesting, because that's something you don't see. That's what oftentimes happens in private to prepare you for the platform he's going to give you so your light can shine before men. Not many people talk about the roots, but the roots precede the fruit. We're about to get to the fruit. Verse 17.

So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp a wide and deep the dimensions. How big is the box? I want you to grasp how big the box is. If anyone here at any point in time in the next 20 years can calculate this and tell me the dimensions of the love of Christ, then I will give you every earthly position I have.

You can't. It's infinite. You can't calculate it. You're gonna multiply the length times the width times the height times the depth of infinity times infinity times infinity times. There's infinity and a Real infinity, not just eternal.

Everyone here is eternal. You're going to live forever somewhere. But you're all creative. That means you had a beginning. God didn't.

Neither did his love. What? Yeah. We can't even comprehend that. But he's saying.

I want you to grasp that. So if you thought he was putting down in the box, he's not. But then if you are maybe wondering still, and maybe you disagree with me, read verse 19. And to know his love that surpasses knowledge. I want you to know something you can't know.

But just keep trying. It might be cute. It's worth the effort that you limited. Limited in your perspective, limited in your physical abilities, limited in your mental abilities. They might all be ahead of mine, but you're still limited.

You can only be in one place at one time. God's omnipresent. You may be very powerful, like the Ephesians. He's omnipotent, all powerful, always has all the cards that you limited would be filled to the measure of all the fullness of unlimited, uncontainable God. Your box leaks.

What'd you write down? You could ask them to do anything. What would you write down? And here, what you see is the vision that we have that you would be so filled, so spiritually transformed that the gospel leaks out of you. That would lead to gospel saturation.

The problem with your box, it leaks because God leaks. God's bigger than the ocean. If I poured the ocean on that box, you. You wouldn't see that box anymore. That's what needs to happen to your boxes today.

Get rid of the box. Uncontainable. So big. So big.

And he wants to go not only through us, but beyond us. Look at verse 20 and 21. Puts the roots, lays the foundation, but then says now to him who is able to do immeasurably. That's why I can confidently give you that wager. Because I know you can't measure it.

It's not measurable. More than all we could ask, what you write down on your paper, what are you asking him to do if he can do anything? That's what you're asking? Maybe you should go bigger. Or imagine you couldn't even dream it up.

It's not possible for you to out ask God according to his power, the power that raised Christ from the dead. This is like an echo of the earlier prayer. It's also mirroring what happened in Acts 19. This is at work. Where is it at work?

Around us. Anybody? Bueller? Anyone in us? So it's in us and it's gonna flow through us and it's gonna go beyond us.

Look at the next part. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations. That's beyond us forever and ever. That is true.

A.W. tozer says what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Maybe you've heard that quote. Do you know why he says it? Because whatever that is, whatever comes into your mind when you think about God, that's your capacity.

That's the limit. That's the ceiling on your prayers. That's as big as you can obey. That's as much risk as you will be willing to take for Jesus. So what is it that comes into your mind?

Whatever it is, it's too small because your box leaks. And he wants you to get that so that he'll flow. Spiritual transformation, gospel saturation through you, beyond you. I love how excited they were at the NC State game because you're cheering for somebody to do the basic thing they're supposed to do. Like 65 yard run.

That was pretty awesome. It's like two yard gain. First down, Wolf. Woo. James, can you imagine if I came to your work and I was like, I know ChatGPT wrote that email, but good job hitting send.

James Hardigan. James Hardigan.

Sometimes we get bored with church. God, you're not doing it right. That's the problem. What do you think of what is it that comes into your mind? That's your limit.

Let's stretch the limit. Let's break the muscle down. You can recover tomorrow. Tear it, stretch it, take a step of faith. That might be so simple to some of you of starting a conversation with somebody when you go over to Harris Teeter today, not even telling about Jesus, just starting a conversation for some of you might be a step for others of you.

It's time for to step out by faith. I remember we've talked before about Madagascar and the churches that have been planted there and the thousand tens of thousands of people that have been impacted in that country as a result of one guy that decided to take a step of faith from our church. Do you know what he was doing when he was here? He wasn't key on the strategy team. He put up signs for our church.

You know how you get the roots to grow? Small deposits oftentimes bring big fruit. Other people came to Christ. Some that he knows about, some that he doesn't because he put signs up. I had one lady who was running in a neighborhood where he put a Sign up.

She came to me, and because she said, I went to this other church where I knew my neighbor went to. And the pastor, I couldn't get a hold of him. There was nobody there. And then I came over to. We had a.

We had the worst office on Limousine Drive. That's the funniest thing. It's like, Rich. The first person ever came for benevolence. This blows my mind.

Because I came from Flint, Michigan. Like, the worst place to live in America. Like, if you had. If you need us to buy you groceries, you, like, didn't have a shirt. Like, it was terrible.

Person pulled up in a BMW. I was like, sell that car. Because I didn't know what the right thing to say was.

It's a unique town we have here.

Well, regardless of what the outside looks like, you still need Jesus.

What could he do? What could we ask? What could we imagine sitting on a hill? I can imagine. But he can do more than that.

Wow. What does he want to do through you? How does he want to do that? But this last part's the scariest part. It's, like, easy to dream about at the beginning of a relationship.

Because everything's hope and potential. But at the end of a relationship, you know what happens. I told you, last words are lasting words. People are very honest at the end. Here's what I want to tell you.

My fear for you as a church is that you'll know the right stuff, but you'll be too scared to do it. And that you'll be trapped by fear. I think of the Israelites, think of their experience. We've got great stories, Lots of things I couldn't tell you that. I didn't want this to be just a nostalgic time.

I'm talking about all the bad things. About all the people that have been baptized. And all the places we baptize people. You can baptize people in pools all around the city. Apartment complexes, camps, hotels we've rented.

Probably did at the Briar Creek. I don't remember under the awning. I bet there's some of my kids under the awning at the theater. One of them at a pool here in town. One of them over on the stage at Pine Hollow.

We see all the people you guys have seen get baptized here. That's a miracle. Every time that happens, we just keep living on that. Or when we did cardboard testimonies or shoes or some reverse offering giveaway. I remember a kid getting their life saved because we did a reverse tithe one Sunday.

We've never passed out a plate ever at our church to collect money from people. That goes back to the very beginning, the very first meeting we ever had. I didn't know anybody really in the town, and I didn't want them to think I came to get their money. I wanted their heart. I want them to give their heart to Jesus and experience real transformation.

Then God take care of all the other stuff. So we just put a box up in the back of the room, and we didn't have the money to pay for the room we were in. We prayed. We had $4 left when it was done. So I told the other pastor, they come with me is Jason Tovey.

Some of you know him. I know Jonathan, you know him. James, you know some different people. So we're just gonna put a box in the back. We won't pass a plate.

But one Sunday, we passed a plate and we gave people money, and people complained about it. Can you believe that? Like, if you ever think you can make everyone happy, no, you're not. Ice cream. It's not gonna work, right?

Like, it doesn't happen. And if no one ever complains about you, you're not trying to.

So we gave people money. One guy got $5. That's what it is. Like, some people got 100, some people got 20, some got 5. He got $5.

But it spurred him on to think about, how could I use this? And we decided to do is start a fundraiser and raise money. Saved a little girl's life at Duke Hospital. Amazing. For him, that was a step of faith.

What is it for you? What did you write down? Is it even about you? It was about circumstances. The prayer that Paul would pray for you, the prayer that I'm going to pray for you when I leave is that he would change you.

That's hard. I did my doctorate on leadership loss at a Christian school. And so the theme passage was Paul's talk in Philippians where he says, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. And the real academic portion of it was not the studying the verses. It was people study that I did with 100 people that were going to start ministry.

So I went to different seminaries, different places, missionaries that are being sent out, people starting nonprofits, doing this different stuff. Said, what do you think is going to be the greatest loss you experience when you step out by faith? And then there were another hundred people that I went to. They were at some executive level of ministry. And so they were founder of a ministry, the head of a Headmaster of a school, either the senior pastor or executive pastor of a church, a vice president of, you know, something big organizations that probably send you mailers.

Right. Well, I asked them the same question in the last 10 years because they had to have been doing that level of physician for at least 10 years. What's the greatest loss you've experienced in ministry? And the curious part I had about it was, do these answers come together or do they diverge? They couldn't have been more different because the.

The young people that were excited and potential. All the losses they thought they would experience were external. I'm not gonna have as much money in my retirement account. My grandparents don't want to talk to me because I became a Christian. Like all this stuff, I may be persecuted.

I'm going to a dangerous country. I could get killed. The other group that have been doing it for 10 years, at least some for 30, 40.

I realized that when I started, I thought it was all about me changing the world for Jesus. And God's not really worried about that. He's got it, but he wants to change my inner world. Paul knows that. I didn't know that 20 years ago.

Right now, I'm telling you because I love you. He wants to do the work in you first, then through you, then beyond you. And don't be like the Israelites. Think about what happened with them. Big, broad overview.

If you've never read the Bible before you go read it yourself. The book of Exodus, the greatest deliverance moment in human history. He leads 2 million people across a body of water on dry land to free them from slavery, because that's what they've been crying out for for 400 years. A short time later, he's gonna lead them into a promised land that'll be theirs, that they will dwell, and he will dwell with them. And everything they've dreamed about beyond that will be theirs.

And they're scared to go. Huh?

Do you remember what happened? Do you know what they do instead? They start complaining and revising history and saying, I wish we were back in slavery. The slavery that your ancestors were asking to be out of. Yep, that was good, because at least we had onions.

It's in the Bible.

I'd go, you're an idiot. But I do it.

When God made it clear to Shannon and I that our assignment here was done, that was scary.

It would have been easier to stay here or go back and try to relive 20 years ago if you're still living on yesterday's faith. That's disobedience.

So what's next for you? Not just this church. Not just for me. He wants to do work in you, but you gotta keep walking by faith. So they don't go in Israel.

They miss out for 40 years. They wander. They waste their life. Except the guys that were willing to go but couldn't because of who they hung out with. There's a lesson there, too.

Some of you hang out with your friends because we're all Christians and we all do this thing and God's going, I told you to go. I told you to. That's how beneficial. It can't be just that. Get beyond yourself, beyond your friends, beyond the walls of this church.

Don't be afraid. And if you are afraid, do it scared. Because in Hebrews, thousands of years after the Israelites. So he's not talking to the Israelites. He says today in its present tense, which is always present today.

That means right now. September 13th, September 14th, September 15th. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart like they did the promised land.

Did they really sin? I mean, they were scared. Yes. Their inactivity was sin. Trying to go back to what they know rather than new rep, bigger weight.

It's time to go. We walked across that and probably felt like we've done enough obedience for the next couple years. Nope. You can't live on yesterday's faith. New step of faith.

What is God asking you? What'd you write on your paper? Is he big enough? I told you today, his message is God is still big enough. He's still big enough to save people.

We don't live on the ones that have been saved. Let's. Let's get some more. Amen. It's Philip.

Heaven. He's big enough to change you. He's big enough to restore your relationships. He's big enough to heal, to forgive, to reconcile, to free, to bring prodigals home to. To rebuild marriages, to eliminate pride in you and lust and anger and gluttony and sloth.

He's willing and able to make broken people whole.

That's already more than we can comprehend. And my list is a lot longer. Maybe you make your own for this reason, Father, I come before you with my family. This church been in my family for 20 years. And now sending me out to invite more people into adoption as they go out on mission.

May we be like the seals that go on special operations, but also like the security guard who handles mundane daily activity. And in all of it, may you work in us so much that we have to talk about it that it overflows, that you work through us and it goes beyond us when we're forgotten and nobody knows our name, that some deposits we made are having an eternal compounding interest.

For your glory, I pray for you specifically. If you're that person that I've been praying would come to Christ, maybe it's you. Maybe you're the one. Maybe you've come to this church for years and you. We've talked and you've told me, I know there's people here, that you're an atheist.

But you come because your spouse wants you to, because you're interested, or because there's something you like about the people or about something that's happening. Today's the day. Today. If you hear his voice, do not harden your heart, because the voice gets harder to hear the more you refuse to listen.

Trust him. What does that mean? For all who sinned, fallen short of the glory of God? He's offered a gift, eternal life. Because he loved the world so much that he gave his son, his own and only son, so you could become one of his son's daughters.

Whoever would believe would have eternal life. Don't overcomplicate it. It says what it says. I don't care what your denomination told you. Your pastor said, if you believe on Jesus Christ, you will have eternal life with Jesus Christ.

We believe. Right now, I don't know about this. And what about that fact? And how about the people that think that? Nope, nope, nope.

Do you believe that Jesus was the son of God? That he came and he died for your sins? He paid a price you couldn't pay, and you don't deserve it. You can't earn it. But he's giving you a gift, and you.

You need to take it. And you take it by just saying, I believe. I confess my sins and I want Jesus to. To be my Savior. And if you pray that right now, he promises to save you.

Will you do that right now?

If so, all of heaven rejoices and they can't believe. Another one. Another one. Do it again. Show us your glory.

However you keep doing that, as we exalt your son, Jesus, will you draw men and women, boys and girls, to him all over the world? It's in his name that I pray because he is true. Amen.