Speaker 1: Aren't you glad to be in the House of God today?
Speaker 1: I think the only word to describe what I feel
Speaker 1: in this moment is just grateful. I'm grateful to God.
Speaker 1: I'm grateful for our church. I'm grateful for Pastor Stephen
Speaker 1: and Holly for giving me the amazing honor preaching God's
Speaker 1: word today because this has been our church home for
Speaker 1: fifteen years, and like Pastor said, the majority of that time,
Speaker 1: I got the great honor of serving as worship pastor
Speaker 1: and really living out my dream. I had my dream job.
Speaker 1: And then last year, as God led our family to
Speaker 1: enter into a new season, our church and our pastors
Speaker 1: have been so loving and supportive every single step of
Speaker 1: the way in this new journey for us. And there
Speaker 1: was a conversation I had with Pastor Stephen in January
Speaker 1: where I was just trying to say thank you, and
Speaker 1: I was trying to express that there's no way I
Speaker 1: could ever say thank you enough for everything he's done
Speaker 1: for me, the investment he's made and our family, and
Speaker 1: what he said next has really stuck with me all
Speaker 1: you long. It's kind of been a guiding light for
Speaker 1: me this year. He said that the greatest way I
Speaker 1: could thank him would be to run after everything God
Speaker 1: had put in me with all of my heart. And
Speaker 1: at a time when I was questioning if I had
Speaker 1: what it took, at a time when I was nervous,
Speaker 1: at a time when I was scared, he spoke so
Speaker 1: much just confidence and faith and belief encouraging to me.
Speaker 1: And as I've been reflecting on that this week, I
Speaker 1: realized that that's all of our story. Because every Sunday
Speaker 1: we leave church believing that God can actually use us,
Speaker 1: and that when He preaches, we believe that God, God
Speaker 1: cannot just use us. He wants to use us. He
Speaker 1: wants to invite us in to his work. And so
Speaker 1: that's kind of been my vision for this year. I'm
Speaker 1: just going to run after what God put in me.
Speaker 1: So a lot has been different, but a lot of
Speaker 1: stayed the same too, because every week in our family's
Speaker 1: in church, we've made the Blakeney Campus our home. Shout
Speaker 1: out to Blakeney, the rowdy crew over there, and we
Speaker 1: love that we still get to sit under such amazing teaching.
Speaker 1: We love watching our daughters thrive in our youth ministry.
Speaker 1: We love going to our e group on Sunday night.
Speaker 1: I have some of my e group here right here,
Speaker 1: And even when I go to minister at another church,
Speaker 1: I still feel like I'm at home because every service
Speaker 1: of any church I ever go to, there's always an
Speaker 1: elevation worship song in the service, usually more than one.
Speaker 1: I think I've heard same God at every church I've
Speaker 1: ever been to this year. But it's beautiful. I meet
Speaker 1: epham from all over the country and meet people that said,
Speaker 1: thank you for the ministry of this church because God
Speaker 1: has changed my life through it. And so as our
Speaker 1: family gets ready to give in the year end offering,
Speaker 1: we are more excited and more convinced than ever that
Speaker 1: this is great ground to sow into for the Kingdom
Speaker 1: of God. So if you're grateful for our church, if
Speaker 1: you're grateful for our pastors and our leaders, you're grateful
Speaker 1: for what God has done in your life to this ministry.
Speaker 1: Put your hands together. I'm grateful to be with my
Speaker 1: favorite worship team on the planet. Again. You ready for
Speaker 1: the Word of God? All right, I'm ready to appreciate it.
Speaker 1: We're going to be in Ephesians today. This is chapter three,
Speaker 1: verses fourteen through twenty one, and this is what the
Speaker 1: word of God says for this reason, I kneel before
Speaker 1: the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on
Speaker 1: earth derives its name. I pray that of his glorious riches,
Speaker 1: he may strengthen you with power through a spirit in
Speaker 1: your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your
Speaker 1: hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted
Speaker 1: and established in love, may have power, together with all
Speaker 1: the Lord's Holy people, to grasp how wide and long,
Speaker 1: and high and deep is the love of Christ, and
Speaker 1: to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may
Speaker 1: be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Speaker 1: And maybe you've heard these next two verses. Now to
Speaker 1: him who is able to do immeasurably more than all
Speaker 1: we ask are imagining, according to his power that does
Speaker 1: that work within us. To him be glory in the
Speaker 1: Church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, for ever
Speaker 1: and ever. Amen to Him who's able to do immeasurably more.
Speaker 1: I feel like there should be a song that says
Speaker 1: something like you are more than able. I think that
Speaker 1: would be That would be a great song. That song
Speaker 1: is amazing. It's fantastic. Now I know. I just read
Speaker 1: a scripture about more, but today I want to preach
Speaker 1: on the topic Lessons from less, Lessons from less Let's
Speaker 1: pray together. God, we thank you for the richness of
Speaker 1: your word and how every time your word has opened,
Speaker 1: you will speak to us. We can be confident of that.
Speaker 1: We can be confident that you are here among us
Speaker 1: right now, and you want to do a work in
Speaker 1: each one of us, whether it's Epham, whether it's in
Speaker 1: the room here at Valentine or Blakeney or Gaston. God,
Speaker 1: you want to speak to us who speak through your
Speaker 1: word now in Jesus name. Amen. All right, go ahead
Speaker 1: and give three high fives on your way to your seat. Now,
Speaker 1: my family, did we ditched Blakeney for Balentine this week?
Speaker 1: I've got my family here. I've got my parents here,
Speaker 1: the whole crew. But I do want to put a
Speaker 1: picture of my family on the screen because I'm just
Speaker 1: a proud husband and dad. So it's my wife, Ferris.
Speaker 1: We've been married for seventeen years. I've got twin girls,
Speaker 1: Adlene Leanna, they are fourteen now, and then Sidney is
Speaker 1: our youngest one. So you can see that I am
Speaker 1: surrounded by women. And so the word count in our
Speaker 1: house right now is incredibly high. Like the word per
Speaker 1: minute number would blow your mind any other girl, Dad's
Speaker 1: out there, can you feel me on that. Plus I've
Speaker 1: got two teenagers that are going through all the teenage
Speaker 1: things at the exact same time, so please pray for me.
Speaker 1: But Sidney, she's our youngest. She's ten and Cydny's amazing.
Speaker 1: She's short like her dad, so sorry, sid but she
Speaker 1: more than makes up for it in personality. And my
Speaker 1: wife and I joke all the time because she Sidney
Speaker 1: is just full of personality. She's feisty, and we're laid
Speaker 1: back and Sidney's whatever the opposite of laid back is.
Speaker 1: But we know God's going to use it. God's gonna
Speaker 1: channel that for good one day. She has the spiritual,
Speaker 1: spiritual gift of perseverance. So parents, you know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about. Whenever she gets something in her mind that
Speaker 1: she wants, she's going to wear you down until she
Speaker 1: gets it. She is going to find a way to
Speaker 1: get what she wants. And so a couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: when she was seven, she got it in her mind
Speaker 1: that she wanted to watch a shark movie. And I
Speaker 1: knew this was not going to end up in a
Speaker 1: good place because she'd have nightmares, and then it would
Speaker 1: ruin our night because we'd be up all night. So
Speaker 1: I was like, Sidney, you're too young to watch a
Speaker 1: shark movie. But she was set on it, and through
Speaker 1: some mix of charm and stubbornness and my weakness, before
Speaker 1: I knew it. On Friday night, Family movie Night, we
Speaker 1: were watching Jaws, and I convinced myself that not only
Speaker 1: was I exposing her to one of the greatest movies
Speaker 1: of all time, but I was going to teach your
Speaker 1: proper ocean safety. Because I know people say that we're
Speaker 1: not on a shark's menu, but I don't buy that.
Speaker 1: I think I look like a tasty treat to a
Speaker 1: shark myself. So we were watching the movie and the
Speaker 1: girls were excited, but then about an hour into the movie,
Speaker 1: they got a little bit confused because they're like, Daddy,
Speaker 1: I thought we were going to watch a shark movie,
Speaker 1: but we haven't seen a shark yet. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if you've seen Jaws in a while. But for
Speaker 1: the whole first part of the movie, you see a
Speaker 1: fin every now and then, you see some red water,
Speaker 1: you hear the famous theme song, but you don't see
Speaker 1: the full shark, and so they were complaining about it,
Speaker 1: and I was like, I promise, the shark is coming.
Speaker 1: And so then finally the moment arrived that they had
Speaker 1: been waiting for, and they saw the shark, and I
Speaker 1: was waiting to heal like squeals of terror and fear.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I wanted that, but I guess
Speaker 1: I wanted them to have the full experience. And instead
Speaker 1: I heard something I didn't expect. I heard laughter. And
Speaker 1: I look over it and they are pointing at the shark,
Speaker 1: pointing at the screen, just mocking this movie, making fun
Speaker 1: of one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time.
Speaker 1: And they're like, these special effects are awful. Marvel is
Speaker 1: so much better. This is terrible. And I couldn't convince
Speaker 1: them otherwise, and you know, I kept trying to tell
Speaker 1: them that, you know, that was cutting edge technology at
Speaker 1: the time that Steven Spielberg knew that the shark didn't
Speaker 1: look super real, and so he went with a less
Speaker 1: is more approach that he knew in order for people
Speaker 1: to truly enjoy the movie the way it was meant
Speaker 1: to be enjoyed. They had to see less of the
Speaker 1: thing that they went into the movie wanting to see.
Speaker 1: So less is more something. I'm not teaching you anything new.
Speaker 1: You all know this. So less time on Instagram means
Speaker 1: more time in person with the people you love. Less
Speaker 1: shopping means more money in the bank. Can I get
Speaker 1: a witness on that after this weekend? You know, less
Speaker 1: donuts is more abs. Now I don't personally like that.
Speaker 1: I want more donuts and more abs. I would actually
Speaker 1: just settle for one AB, but I don't think the
Speaker 1: Lord has given me the ab anointing. But usually we
Speaker 1: don't like less as more when both are things that
Speaker 1: we want, we want more and more. So you want
Speaker 1: more relaxation and more influence at your job. You want
Speaker 1: more free time and more money. But usually a trade
Speaker 1: off has to be made in order to get something
Speaker 1: that is most important later. You have to see less
Speaker 1: of something that you want right now. So with that
Speaker 1: tension in mind, I want to read the ty the
Speaker 1: two key verses from Ephesians, and let us really think
Speaker 1: about what God is wanting to say to us about
Speaker 1: more so now, to him who's able to do immeasurably
Speaker 1: more than all we ask are imagine according to His
Speaker 1: power that is at work within us. To Him be
Speaker 1: glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations,
Speaker 1: forever and ever. Men. See that scripture used to be
Speaker 1: my cheak code when I was a worship leader, because
Speaker 1: if I needed to get the people to shout, all
Speaker 1: I had to do is start talking about immeasurably more,
Speaker 1: and people would shout about it because you should shout
Speaker 1: about it. It's an awesome promise from God. It's an
Speaker 1: awesome declaration of faith because I can imagine a lot,
Speaker 1: and if God can out do what I can imagine,
Speaker 1: then that sounds like a pretty sweet deal for me.
Speaker 1: But what I didn't realize is that I would also
Speaker 1: I would almost treat it like God would take my
Speaker 1: dreams and whatever I wanted and just like crank it
Speaker 1: to eleven, like God just wanted to take whatever my
Speaker 1: wish list was and just maximize that that immeasurably more
Speaker 1: was going to come my way, no matter what, more success,
Speaker 1: more money, more happiness. I treated it like it was
Speaker 1: Paul's Mike drop moment at the end of Ephesians. And
Speaker 1: the problem with that is this, it doesn't usually line
Speaker 1: up with real life because many of you, you're looking
Speaker 1: at the last year of your life and you're not
Speaker 1: seeing more of what you hoped for. You're actually seeing less.
Speaker 1: You're seeing less of what you prayed for, less of
Speaker 1: what you thought God was going to do in your life.
Speaker 1: And that can be especially painful during the holidays. So
Speaker 1: this Thanksgiving, you were looking at one less person across
Speaker 1: the table from you, that divorce that you never saw coming.
Speaker 1: You're looking at less financial security after you just lost
Speaker 1: your job. I've got two friends right now who just
Speaker 1: got a devastating diagnosis about their unborn son where they
Speaker 1: were told that he would not live past childbirth. So
Speaker 1: where is a measurably more for them right now in
Speaker 1: this season? You know, when Sidney was born, five weeks
Speaker 1: after she was born, we found out that she has
Speaker 1: cystic fibrosis, and so we weren't shouting about a measurably
Speaker 1: more in the hospital room when we got that diagnosis.
Speaker 1: So here's the question we're going to wrestle with from
Speaker 1: our main text today is how can we as a
Speaker 1: people of God claim to worship a god of a
Speaker 1: measurably more in a world that often feels like a
Speaker 1: measurably less So as we look at this question, I
Speaker 1: think it's important that we go back and see what
Speaker 1: Paul was actually experiencing when he wrote it, because he
Speaker 1: didn't write this as like a mic drop moment Benediction
Speaker 1: at the end of Ephesians. It's right smack dab in
Speaker 1: the middle of that letter. And it's what he's says
Speaker 1: next that I think is really interesting for us to explore.
Speaker 1: He says this in four verse one. He says, as
Speaker 1: a prisoner for the Lord den I urge you to
Speaker 1: live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Speaker 1: So if you're not seeing what you expected a measurably
Speaker 1: more to look like in your life right now, Paul's
Speaker 1: immeasurably more at this moment look like a prison cell.
Speaker 1: He wasn't seeing more. He was seeing less, less freedom,
Speaker 1: less visible fruit of his ministry, less of his dreams
Speaker 1: coming to life. So how could Paul still write about
Speaker 1: God doing more? Well, we know that Paul was a
Speaker 1: student of the Scripture, so I wonder if bes he's
Speaker 1: writing this letter, if he's thinking about Isaiah fifty five,
Speaker 1: verse eight, where it writes, my thoughts are nothing like
Speaker 1: your thoughts, says the Lord, and my ways are far
Speaker 1: beyond anything you could imagine. So if God's thoughts are
Speaker 1: beyond our thoughts, and his ways are beyond what we
Speaker 1: can imagine, then maybe the way that God sees more
Speaker 1: is different than the way we see more, the way
Speaker 1: we view more see Paul was writing this letter either
Speaker 1: to the church in Ephesus or to several churches in
Speaker 1: that area, and they would just pass it around and
Speaker 1: they would read it because he was trying to show
Speaker 1: them what the church should be like, what was the
Speaker 1: purpose of the church, what did it mean to follow Christ?
Speaker 1: Because so many people were coming to faith in Jesus
Speaker 1: from so many different backgrounds and so many different walks
Speaker 1: of life, and there was very little blueprint for what
Speaker 1: this life in Christ was supposed to look like. And
Speaker 1: they were facing opposition from so many different things, And
Speaker 1: so Paul wanted them to know where their hope came from,
Speaker 1: where their power was found, how they could be in
Speaker 1: power to live out the Gospel, live out this life
Speaker 1: that Christ was calling them to. And in verse twenty,
Speaker 1: I think there's two words that make sense of the
Speaker 1: whole passage for us. So put Ephesians three twenty on
Speaker 1: the screen. See. Most of my life I focused on
Speaker 1: the two words immeasurably more. But I've always skipped over
Speaker 1: the two words within us. And I think that is
Speaker 1: the key to understanding this chapter, because the more Paul
Speaker 1: is talking about here is less about an external wish
Speaker 1: and more about internal weight. It's less about what we see.
Speaker 1: It's less about the more that we can view with
Speaker 1: our own eyes, and it's really about the more that
Speaker 1: God wants to produce within us, the more that he
Speaker 1: wants to form within us, the more that he wants
Speaker 1: to shape, and the more that He wants to do
Speaker 1: through us. And so when you read scripture, context is everything.
Speaker 1: So I want to show you some of the verses
Speaker 1: leading up to Ephesians three twenty, and notice all the
Speaker 1: internal language in it. So let's see. I think it's
Speaker 1: Ephesians three sixteen. I will show it. Here we go,
Speaker 1: says I pray that out of his glorious riches, he
Speaker 1: may strengthen you with power through His spirit in your
Speaker 1: inner being verse seventeen, So that Christ may dwell in
Speaker 1: your hearts through faith. Go to verse eighteen nineteen. I mean,
Speaker 1: there we go, that you may be filled to the
Speaker 1: measure of all the fullness of God. See paul Is
Speaker 1: prayer saying that they would experience the process of sanctification.
Speaker 1: So when you put your faith in Jesus, you're saved
Speaker 1: by grace through faith in a moment. But it takes
Speaker 1: a lifetime for the Holy Spirit to work out the
Speaker 1: reality of what He wants to do in your heart.
Speaker 1: It takes a lifetime to line up our hearts to
Speaker 1: the reality of what God says we are and who
Speaker 1: God says we are. And so paul is saying, there's
Speaker 1: a work that God needs to do inside of you.
Speaker 1: But often I want to bypass the inner work of
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit and get right to the external reward.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever felt that way too.
Speaker 1: Now let me say this though, Do I believe God
Speaker 1: can do a measurably more in your circumstances and do
Speaker 1: things beyond your wildest dreams? Yes, of course. I'm married
Speaker 1: to the woman in my dreams. I have three amazing daughters.
Speaker 1: I've seen God do miracles. This church, this is a
Speaker 1: living breathing a measurably more testimony what we have seen
Speaker 1: God do through this church. I believe what the Bible
Speaker 1: says that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him,
Speaker 1: but we are not promised are preferred more. But here's
Speaker 1: what you are promised that, if you've placed your faith
Speaker 1: in Jesus, God will do whatever it takes to create
Speaker 1: more and more christ likeness in your heart. He will
Speaker 1: do more and more to conform you to the image
Speaker 1: of Christ. And I remember one time Pastor Stephen preached
Speaker 1: on the stage and he said more is not always bigger,
Speaker 1: but it's always deeper. And often the deepest work that
Speaker 1: God wants to do in our heart and our faith
Speaker 1: and our character, it has to enter through the doorway
Speaker 1: of less And so that's what we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about for the brief time, remaining, just three lessons from
Speaker 1: less areas of your life where you might be seeing
Speaker 1: less of what you wanted, but it's an opportunity for
Speaker 1: God to produce more of what He wants for you
Speaker 1: in your life. So here's the first lesson. You might
Speaker 1: see less certainty, but God wants you to become more confident.
Speaker 1: You might see less serain, but God wants you to
Speaker 1: become more confident. My personality love certainty, I crave at
Speaker 1: chunks texting me this week something You're like, Hey, I
Speaker 1: know you're a planner, so you're only going to see this.
Speaker 1: So like, I'm addicted to it, and this is how
Speaker 1: bad I am, how far I take it, y'all. I
Speaker 1: look up spoilers online for my favorite TV shows and
Speaker 1: movies because I want to know what's going to happen
Speaker 1: before I go in there. I got burned by the
Speaker 1: season finale of Lost, and so I decided that was
Speaker 1: never going to happen again. I'm actually am trying to
Speaker 1: get better. I'm a recovering spoiler addict. So maybe you
Speaker 1: can't relate to that, but maybe this is your story.
Speaker 1: When someone texts you and says, hey, I really need
Speaker 1: to talk. Can we get together later, my mind goes
Speaker 1: to the worst thing I could have possibly done. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what did I say? What did I do? Why did
Speaker 1: they hate me? And I'm going to get fired? And
Speaker 1: so just a couple weeks ago, somebody texted and said, Hey,
Speaker 1: can we hop on zoom later today? There's something I
Speaker 1: want to talk to you about. I spent all day
Speaker 1: worrying about it, and then it was like the most
Speaker 1: encouraging Zoom call ever had. But I hate uncertainty because
Speaker 1: I fill the gap of uncertainty with worst case scenarios.
Speaker 1: And somehow Paul Paul didn't seem to do that, or
Speaker 1: at least he didn't seem to let his heart stay
Speaker 1: there because he was in an incredibly uncertain situation. He
Speaker 1: was in prison, he had no idea when he would
Speaker 1: get out. If ever, he had no idea what the
Speaker 1: day would hold. But he still sounds like someone who,
Speaker 1: even in the middle of uncertainty, had confidence that God
Speaker 1: was working. And that confidence is what the Bible calls faith.
Speaker 1: Hebrews eleven one says, now, faith is confidence and what
Speaker 1: we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Speaker 1: So it's a confidence in the unseen. That means if
Speaker 1: you see it, it's not faith. It's not going to
Speaker 1: take faith to walk into it. So we have to
Speaker 1: believe that God is at work even when we don't
Speaker 1: see the evidence of it in our circumstances, because in
Speaker 1: that uncertainty is when we learn what we can really
Speaker 1: depend on and hold on to. And this is how
Speaker 1: Paul breaks that down. And Ephesians three sixteen and seventeen,
Speaker 1: he says, I pray that out of his glorious riches.
Speaker 1: He may strengthen you with power through His spirit and
Speaker 1: your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your
Speaker 1: hearts through faith. Paul saying here that the foundation of
Speaker 1: our confidence isn't what we're walking into, it's who's walking
Speaker 1: into it with us. Paul is saying that we're not
Speaker 1: promised more certainty on this earth, but you are promised
Speaker 1: that you have a God who will never leave you,
Speaker 1: He will never forsake you. That every promise in Christ
Speaker 1: Jesus is yes and amen. And I love how pastors
Speaker 1: taught us the last couple of weeks. I want to
Speaker 1: make sure I get this quote right. That confidence in
Speaker 1: God's promise without commitment to his process is not dependence,
Speaker 1: it's delusion. And you see, uncertainty is one of the
Speaker 1: greatest invitations into that process of growing and confidence, of
Speaker 1: growing in faith. So if you're a Christian, you've probably
Speaker 1: prayed at some point because I know I have God,
Speaker 1: give me more faith. But are you willing to give
Speaker 1: up some of your certainty to get it? See? The
Speaker 1: least certain I've ever been in my life is when
Speaker 1: our twins Adling Leanna. They were born three months premature
Speaker 1: and I've told this story before here, but when they
Speaker 1: were born, they were born at twenty seven weeks. Leanna
Speaker 1: was one pound fourteen ounces Adley was two pounds five ounces,
Speaker 1: and the doctors didn't give them much hope of survival.
Speaker 1: And in fact, three days after they were born, we
Speaker 1: got a call from one of the doctors saying, hey,
Speaker 1: you and your wife need to come up and talk
Speaker 1: to us right now. And they told us that Leanna
Speaker 1: had a Grade four brain bleed and they said she
Speaker 1: will most likely never walk, most likely never taught. They
Speaker 1: used the word vegetable, and they said that we should
Speaker 1: consider taking her off life support. And I remember how
Speaker 1: devastated we felt. We were angry, we were hurt, we
Speaker 1: were scared. We didn't feel any feelings I associate with faith.
Speaker 1: And after about an hour of crying, I remember Pastor
Speaker 1: Stephen called us and he was telling us, you know,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to deal with a lot of uncomfortable conversations,
Speaker 1: and you have to deal with those. You can't ignore
Speaker 1: the facts, but you can choose what you focus on
Speaker 1: in the middle of it. And he said, you know,
Speaker 1: you can't change your feelings, but you can choose your
Speaker 1: focus and so I remember, we didn't feel faith in
Speaker 1: that time, so all we knew to do was just
Speaker 1: put up scriptures of promises of God all over the
Speaker 1: hospital room. And it didn't change things overnight, but it
Speaker 1: did give us the faith and the confidence to just
Speaker 1: take one step. And then we'd wake up the next
Speaker 1: day and I'd be freaking out and I'd be worrying,
Speaker 1: and I'd look at those promises, and it gave us
Speaker 1: the faith to take another step. And people would tell
Speaker 1: us during this time, they would say something like, you know,
Speaker 1: we really admire your faith. And I didn't have the
Speaker 1: heart to tell him that it didn't feel like faith
Speaker 1: to us. It felt like desperation. And I'm here to
Speaker 1: tell you today, some of you think you have zero faith,
Speaker 1: but if you have the faith to call upon the
Speaker 1: name of Jesus and just take one step towards God,
Speaker 1: you have all the faith that you will ever need.
Speaker 1: Faith doesn't feel like faith. It feels like desperately going
Speaker 1: on to a promise from God. It feels like desperately
Speaker 1: just showing up to church saying I know, if I
Speaker 1: just get in the house of God, then I can
Speaker 1: borrow someone else's faith. It means tuning in a line
Speaker 1: saying I need this word from God. It means opening
Speaker 1: up your Bible every day and saying, you know what,
Speaker 1: even if I don't feel anything right now, I know
Speaker 1: God's depositing something in me and that it's going to
Speaker 1: turn out for my good. Sometimes faith is saying, you
Speaker 1: know what, this year in the year end offering. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to give from a timid standpoint of certainty,
Speaker 1: but I'm going to give from a bold standpoint of confidence,
Speaker 1: believing that everything I have comes from God and that
Speaker 1: he's a rewarder of those who seek him. See, it's
Speaker 1: about taking one step after another. And here's what's awesome.
Speaker 1: I was just thinking about this last week. I could
Speaker 1: never have imagined my family sitting on the front row
Speaker 1: of Blakeney fourteen years later healed. But God could see that.
Speaker 1: I couldn't see it. And I don't even know. I
Speaker 1: don't even know if I had the faith to believe
Speaker 1: for that then. But I did have the faith to
Speaker 1: make one step. And here after you take one step
Speaker 1: after another step after another step, you look back and
Speaker 1: you've made it through valleys of uncertainty, and then that's
Speaker 1: when your confidence starts to grow because you can say
Speaker 1: I'm not certain about the economy right now, but I'm
Speaker 1: confident that God is my provider. You can say I'm
Speaker 1: not certain about the diagnosis I just got, but I'm
Speaker 1: confident that God is a healer and a sustainer and
Speaker 1: he's my strength. You can say I'm not confident about her,
Speaker 1: I'm not certain about the government right now. Lord knows
Speaker 1: we all feel that way. But you can say I
Speaker 1: am confident that I serve a king and a kingdom
Speaker 1: that can never be shaken. You know. You can say
Speaker 1: I'm not certain about what I'm walking into, but I
Speaker 1: am confident that in Christ I have a firm foundation.
Speaker 1: So God wants to produce more confidence in us. Here's
Speaker 1: the second lesson from less You might see less fulfillment,
Speaker 1: but God wants you to become more faithful. You might
Speaker 1: see less fulfillment, but God wants you to become more faithful. See.
Speaker 1: I think one of the most dangerous lies today is
Speaker 1: that life is mainly about chasing personal fulfillment. See we're
Speaker 1: bombarded with that value from all sides in our culture.
Speaker 1: And not only is it a very self centered way
Speaker 1: to live, but if you play it out to its
Speaker 1: logical conclusion. It doesn't lead you to a good place,
Speaker 1: because that means you're not fulfilled in your marriage. The
Speaker 1: world says, move on. Or your boss at work challenges
Speaker 1: you to get better, the world says, well, they don't
Speaker 1: appreciate you, so quit. Even though your boss was right.
Speaker 1: You don't like something that was set in church and
Speaker 1: something stepped on your toes, Well, the world says, we'll
Speaker 1: just go find another church that you'll leave six months
Speaker 1: later for a different reason. See, we constantly uproot ourselves
Speaker 1: from actually producing fruit because we don't let our roots
Speaker 1: go down deep. And I doubt Paul felt very fulfilled
Speaker 1: in prison. Sometimes we think these Bible characters just had
Speaker 1: faith all the time. But I don't think he felt fulfilled.
Speaker 1: I don't think he saw the evidence of the impact
Speaker 1: he was making. There had to be a lot of
Speaker 1: hard questions, a lot of wrestling with God, because Paul's
Speaker 1: resume looked a lot more like pain than progress. If
Speaker 1: you want proof, here's some extra credit for all you
Speaker 1: Bible nerds. Go and read about his trials in Sewod
Speaker 1: Corinthians chapter eleven, and ask yourself if it looks like
Speaker 1: a picture of dreams being fulfilled. For those of you
Speaker 1: who aren't going to do that, here's the cliff notes.
Speaker 1: Paul's resume looked like persecution, like shipwrecks, like beatings, like suffering,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't look like what I think the life
Speaker 1: of fulfillment looks like. So Paul's immeasurably more didn't always
Speaker 1: look like progress. But Paul didn't judge success by the
Speaker 1: progress that he could see, so set back after setback
Speaker 1: didn't stop him. He kept showing up to do what
Speaker 1: God had called him to do, no matter what awaited
Speaker 1: him there. So here's what I think Paul knew that
Speaker 1: I think we need to get deep in our hearts.
Speaker 1: Success isn't achieved when you feel fulfilled. Success is achieved
Speaker 1: when you have been faithful and specifically faithful to what
Speaker 1: God has called us to as followers of g Jesus.
Speaker 1: Because Paul was incredibly successful, there was an impact he
Speaker 1: was making for the Kingdom of God unlike anyone else.
Speaker 1: We are living in it two thousand years later, and
Speaker 1: sometimes I like to imagine, what if did Paul ever
Speaker 1: have those moments where he was like, you know what, God,
Speaker 1: enough is enough. I've done everything You've wanted me to do.
Speaker 1: I've said everything he wanted me to say, and nothing
Speaker 1: seems to be going right. See if Paul had backed down,
Speaker 1: If Paul had quit, the entire course of church history
Speaker 1: would have been affected. But Paul remained faithful. There was
Speaker 1: fruit because of his faithfulness, even in the times when
Speaker 1: he didn't feel fulfilled. Now, I want to make sure
Speaker 1: this is really clear, so don't mishear me. God is
Speaker 1: a good father who wants to do good things for
Speaker 1: his children. There is fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Jesus says
Speaker 1: there is abundant life in him. Like I said, I've
Speaker 1: seen God do amazing things in my family's life. I've
Speaker 1: seen them healed, I've seen prayers answered. But I've also
Speaker 1: heard God say no to things that I wanted and
Speaker 1: things that I thought would fulfill me in the moment.
Speaker 1: And as a dad, I know that not everything that
Speaker 1: is best for my daughters is what fulfills them right now.
Speaker 1: But I want them to trust me as their dad,
Speaker 1: and the same way with our heavenly father. We have
Speaker 1: to trust that he knows what is best for his
Speaker 1: creation for his children. He knows what to allow and
Speaker 1: not allow in our life and So here's what I'm learning.
Speaker 1: The Kingdom of God isn't about chasing fulfillment. It's about
Speaker 1: God fulfilling his purpose in me and through me. That's
Speaker 1: what see what God can do through you is all about.
Speaker 1: So we often put God in a box thinking that
Speaker 1: he can only do what we ask or imagine. We
Speaker 1: just want him to elevate and no pun intended the
Speaker 1: thing that we want him to do. But what if
Speaker 1: God has a dream for your life that is in
Speaker 1: a completely different area. You've never even thought about it,
Speaker 1: You've never even imagined it, But it's something God wants
Speaker 1: to do through you. But because your hands are closed,
Speaker 1: and because you keep uprooting yourself trying to chase that
Speaker 1: one thing that you think this is the only way
Speaker 1: God can use me, then you miss out on the
Speaker 1: real thing God wants to do through your life. Because
Speaker 1: there's only fruit when we let our roots go down deep.
Speaker 1: And that's what Paul says in our main text. Look
Speaker 1: at this verse. I pray that you, being rooted and
Speaker 1: established in love, may have power. Power comes from being planted,
Speaker 1: from being faithfully rooted in God's love and being faithfully
Speaker 1: rooted in the things that God loves his church, the
Speaker 1: people of God, those who are made in the image
Speaker 1: of God. When we're rooted in prayer, when we're rooted
Speaker 1: in worship, when we're rooted in scripture. See, power comes
Speaker 1: from letting our roots grow deep through love, which doesn't
Speaker 1: happen when we continually uproot ourselves. We have to let
Speaker 1: our roots go down deeper when things are hard, because
Speaker 1: that is when true fruit is produced. And there are
Speaker 1: many people under the sound of my voice. You're not
Speaker 1: feeling very fulfilled right now, but God's sent a very
Speaker 1: short blonde man to tell you that because you're faithful
Speaker 1: to the things that matter to His heart, you are
Speaker 1: more successful than you think you are. You're a successful
Speaker 1: your faithful husband, your faithful wife. You're a faithful friend.
Speaker 1: You're a faithful student, You're a faithful e kids volunteer,
Speaker 1: You're a faithful e group leader. So continue to show
Speaker 1: up and be faithful. Plant yourself and the things that
Speaker 1: God loves. Plant yourself in prayer, plant yourself in service,
Speaker 1: Plant yourself and you know, be kind to the person
Speaker 1: at work that hates you and you honestly you don't
Speaker 1: like them either, but you know God has caused you
Speaker 1: to love them, keep showing up to do the next
Speaker 1: right thing, the next hard thing, the next step of obedience.
Speaker 1: And when we live that way, that is when we
Speaker 1: find true fulfillment and true impact and true fruit. All right,
Speaker 1: here's the final lesson. You might see less of your preference,
Speaker 1: but God wants you to become more purposeful. You might
Speaker 1: see less of your preference, but God wants you to
Speaker 1: become more purposeful. How many of y'all are saved by
Speaker 1: the bell fans? I'm really dating myself talking about Jaws
Speaker 1: and say by the bell. Zach Morris was my hero.
Speaker 1: I remember I took a picture of Zach to my
Speaker 1: barber and I said, give me his hair. Didn't quite
Speaker 1: work out that way, but I got the next best
Speaker 1: thing because I love I wanted Zach's cell phone, y'all.
Speaker 1: Remember that it's like the size of a toaster, just massive. Well,
Speaker 1: I didn't get the cell phone, but I was one
Speaker 1: of the first students at Spring Valley High School in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three to get a car phone. Y'all. Are
Speaker 1: car phones that like are attached to your car. So
Speaker 1: it was attached to my Toyota Celica, and I just
Speaker 1: I just thought I was the man. It was going
Speaker 1: to help my dating life, that I could be like,
Speaker 1: hey girl, come check out my car phone in my selica,
Speaker 1: which sounds super sketchy and creepy. So if anybody ever
Speaker 1: says that, don't do it. But I promise I had
Speaker 1: pure intentions. It didn't really work. I was a short
Speaker 1: guy in high school. I needed all the help I
Speaker 1: could get. But here's the thing about the car phone
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety three, it didn't work a lot of
Speaker 1: the places because there weren't a ton of cell phone towers.
Speaker 1: And this was especially noticeable to me when I worked
Speaker 1: at a Christian camp up in Ridgeway, South Carolina, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't get a signal anywhere. And there was one
Speaker 1: night where there was a long line for the landline,
Speaker 1: remember those, And I was like, I'm determined, I'm going
Speaker 1: to make the call I need to make tonight. So
Speaker 1: I get in my car and I drive around the
Speaker 1: camp and I go to the very top of the camp,
Speaker 1: the highest point, which is the softball field, and I
Speaker 1: drive up and down the softball field trying to find
Speaker 1: a signal, and I eventually found the sweet spot. It
Speaker 1: was like this one tiny spot, and if I just
Speaker 1: moved a little bit forward or put my car in reverse,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't get a signal. But right there in that spot,
Speaker 1: I could make a call. I made a call to
Speaker 1: the girl that I had talked into dating me at
Speaker 1: the time, but we had to keep it quick, because
Speaker 1: a five minute call then costs as much as like
Speaker 1: your monthly bill. Now. But here's what I realized. From
Speaker 1: much of my life, I have thought about the purpose
Speaker 1: of God like that car phone, like it only worked
Speaker 1: under ideal conditions. That all of my preferences had to
Speaker 1: be met, that all of my wish lists had to
Speaker 1: be fulfilled, and so I had to search for it
Speaker 1: in the perfect job. And then I had to have
Speaker 1: the perfect family over here. And then I had to
Speaker 1: make sure I had the right them out of resource
Speaker 1: and the right amount of influence, and I had to
Speaker 1: feel all the right things, and maybe when all those
Speaker 1: things converge together, then God could finally use me. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you've ever found that, but I have it,
Speaker 1: or maybe there's like just a glimpse of it, but
Speaker 1: it quickly got messed up. Now, thankfully we don't have
Speaker 1: carphones anymore. We have we have these. This is my iPhone.
Speaker 1: You might have an Android. I'm not here to judge
Speaker 1: your phone choices, but this is a massive upgrade because
Speaker 1: it pretty much works anywhere. As long as it's with me,
Speaker 1: I can use it. So I've used this in Charlotte,
Speaker 1: I've used this in Columbia. I've used it in the UK.
Speaker 1: I've used it in Israel, use it in Australia, use
Speaker 1: it in Gaston County. I've used it in a hospital.
Speaker 1: I've used it on my way to my friend's funeral.
Speaker 1: I've used it at work. I've used it everywhere because
Speaker 1: it's portable. And what I'm really thankful for right now
Speaker 1: is that my purpose isn't like that old carphone or
Speaker 1: it had to be in one spot for God to
Speaker 1: use me. But my purpose is portable, and your purpose
Speaker 1: is portable. We carry it with us. You can be
Speaker 1: full of purpose. You can be full of purpose in
Speaker 1: the job you love. You can be full of purpose
Speaker 1: in the job that you hate. You can be full
Speaker 1: of purpose as a single person. You can be full
Speaker 1: of purpose when you're married. You can be full of
Speaker 1: purpose when everything is going wrong in your life. And
Speaker 1: you can be full of purpose when everything is going
Speaker 1: right because your purpose is not career dependent. It's not
Speaker 1: dependent on your preference. It's based on who you are
Speaker 1: and what you carry as a follower of Jesus. And
Speaker 1: Paul explains what our purpose is in Ephesians three twenty one.
Speaker 1: It says to him be glory in the Church and
Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. So
Speaker 1: it's God's glory and all generations through the Church. When
Speaker 1: you build the church, you are walking in purpose. When
Speaker 1: you build the church, you are living out your purpose.
Speaker 1: But also it's when you go out and live like
Speaker 1: the Church, when you take the heart of Jesus, the
Speaker 1: heart of the Church, into every sphere of your life.
Speaker 1: That is how we glorify God. And Paul tells us
Speaker 1: what that kind of life looks like in Ephesians four
Speaker 1: one through three. As a prisoner for the Lord, then
Speaker 1: I urge you to live a life worthy of the
Speaker 1: calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle, be patient,
Speaker 1: bearing with one another in love, make every effort to
Speaker 1: keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
Speaker 1: That description does not really describe our world right now
Speaker 1: at all, which is why we as the church can
Speaker 1: make such a powerful difference because when we live and
Speaker 1: love and serve and obey in a way that makes
Speaker 1: no sense to the world and makes them take notice
Speaker 1: of Jesus. So that is the life that we're meant
Speaker 1: to carry with us. So ask yourself today, am I
Speaker 1: carrying more humility and gentleness into every interaction? Am I
Speaker 1: displaying more pain in a world that runs people over
Speaker 1: in the name of greed and efficiency? Am I bearing
Speaker 1: one another's burdens and love? Am I making every effort
Speaker 1: to bring peace in a culture that only seeks to
Speaker 1: divide us? And the good news is you can be
Speaker 1: that kind of purpose, of that kind of person anywhere.
Speaker 1: You can live out your calling in any situation. That
Speaker 1: means this is good news. You might not have ended
Speaker 1: up where you thought you would have. You think you've
Speaker 1: taken too many detours, made too many mistakes, but you
Speaker 1: didn't lose your purpose. You think you're stuck in a
Speaker 1: position of less What if you stop looking at it
Speaker 1: like that and realize that you're not stuck. You're sent.
Speaker 1: You're sent to carry a measurably more into every situation.
Speaker 1: Because what if what if Paul was writing this a
Speaker 1: measurably more. Was less about what we're meant to get
Speaker 1: and more about what we're supposed to bring, bringing a
Speaker 1: measurably more light, a measurably more love, a measurably more life.
Speaker 1: And the model of what that kind of life looks
Speaker 1: like is Jesus. So how much forgiveness do offer someone
Speaker 1: A measurably more? How much generosity do I need to
Speaker 1: show A measurably more. How much integrity do I need
Speaker 1: to have in this situation A measurably more? How much
Speaker 1: compassion do I need to show my brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: who are hurting A measurably more. See this is the
Speaker 1: prayer I would love for every single person to pray
Speaker 1: every day this week. Where is God calling me to
Speaker 1: be a measurably more more like Christ and the way
Speaker 1: I love and serve others? See God answers prayer through people.
Speaker 1: And so God is going to do a measurably more
Speaker 1: than we can ask or imagine. But most of the
Speaker 1: time he wants to do it through you. And so
Speaker 1: here's what I just want to challenge you to do.
Speaker 1: Use your phone this week, instead of as a tool
Speaker 1: of distraction, make it a tool of remembrance because you
Speaker 1: can just remember my Sillys carphone iPhone illustration. And whenever
Speaker 1: you look at your phone, I want you to just think,
Speaker 1: where's God calling me to be more right now? And
Speaker 1: the text that I'm about to send and the call
Speaker 1: that I'm about to make in the meeting I'm about
Speaker 1: to walk into, as I'm about to step into my
Speaker 1: house after work, and then put your phone away because
Speaker 1: you don't want to be on it too long. But
Speaker 1: if we started asking that prayer as the church, our communities,
Speaker 1: our families, our jobs would be drastically different. See Paul
Speaker 1: gave us this promise in Ephesians to mobilize the church
Speaker 1: to be the more the world needs in Jesus. And
Speaker 1: it's not our strength that enables us to do it,
Speaker 1: because Paul also writes in Colossians one twenty seven to
Speaker 1: them God has chosen to make known among the gentiles
Speaker 1: the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you,
Speaker 1: the hope of glory. That's why Paul could say God
Speaker 1: could do a measurably more in his prison, because in
Speaker 1: his prison he had Christ. And that is why you
Speaker 1: can be confident that you carry more into every situation.
Speaker 1: Because you have Christ, you are a carrier of the
Speaker 1: immeasurably more almighty power in presence of Jesus Christ, of God,
Speaker 1: and out of you is meant to flow more grace,
Speaker 1: more power, more love, and more forgiveness to a world
Speaker 1: that often sees less until you show up. So I
Speaker 1: invite you to stand as we pray together because I
Speaker 1: believe that there's some people who you need the immeasurably
Speaker 1: more touch of God this morning. So with heads bowed
Speaker 1: and eyes closed, if there's an area of your life
Speaker 1: where you need more peace, more power, more confidence, I
Speaker 1: just want you to lift your hands up. If you
Speaker 1: need God to do an immeasurably more work in you
Speaker 1: and around you, We're just going to call upon the
Speaker 1: mighty name of Jesus and So God, right now, we
Speaker 1: are so grateful that the storehouses of Heaven are not limited,
Speaker 1: that you can pour out everything that we need. God,
Speaker 1: that you see every need represented in this church, every
Speaker 1: need reper presented by people who are watching online, and
Speaker 1: you are more than able to meet that need. So God,
Speaker 1: help us just to keep our focus firmly fixed on you.
Speaker 1: So God open our eyes to how you're already moving
Speaker 1: in our life, how you're already demonstrating your love and
Speaker 1: your power and your grace. And I pray Lord that
Speaker 1: as we call out to you in our weakness, that
Speaker 1: you would fill us with your strength so that we
Speaker 1: can then be that same strength and that same love
Speaker 1: and that same more to others. So God, thank you
Speaker 1: for being a God who is able to do a
Speaker 1: measurably more than we ask or imagine. Well, thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us today for the message. And we trust that
Speaker 1: God spoke to you right where you are as we're
Speaker 1: in this year end season. If God is speaking to
Speaker 1: your life and you'd like to begin tithing or give
Speaker 1: above and beyond, we would invite you to head over
Speaker 1: to Elevationchurch dot org. There you'll find all of the
Speaker 1: information available for you to take part in the year
Speaker 1: end offering. If you haven't begun tithing, we would always
Speaker 1: encourage you to start there. Place God first in the
Speaker 1: air of your finances and begin tithing and make that
Speaker 1: a part of your every day life. If you already tithe,
Speaker 1: then would like to go above and beyond and help
Speaker 1: expand the ministry here at Elevation Church. You can also
Speaker 1: do that through the year end offering. All you have
Speaker 1: to do is click the banner at Elevationchurch dot org.
Speaker 1: You can select the campus that you're a part of.
Speaker 1: If you're a part of our online community, select online,
Speaker 1: and if you're part of one of our physical locations,
Speaker 1: make sure that you select one of those campuses. Then
Speaker 1: you can select how much you'd like to give and
Speaker 1: be a part of all that God is doing right
Speaker 1: here at Elevation Church. Again, we thank you for being
Speaker 1: a part of the family here and we can't wait
Speaker 1: to see how God works in and through your life
Speaker 1: as you open up your hands and ask God to
Speaker 1: use you right where you are. Thanks for being a
Speaker 1: part God bless