 I'm really, really excited to teach a portion of Scripture. I'm only really focusing on one verse, although I'll do two verses, but I'm going to give you the context of this. If you guys turn with me to Ephesians chapter 3, I'm going to be looking at verses 20 and 21, but I'm mainly going to kind of hover over verse 20, and I'm going to literally dissect verse 20. The message of my, the title of my message tonight is, How Big Is Your God? And so I'm going to be looking at this in very, in, I guess, in detail. It's one of those messages, to be honest with you, not that I'm going to lie to you, but this has been a theme in my life with my wife in the last few months. It's the ability of God, the capacity of God, and so I am super excited to teach this because what I'll be sharing with you is something that's actually happening in my life. And so I'm really excited to see what God is going to do through this message to all of you here, young and old, because God has a plan and purpose for you. So Ephesians chapter 3, if you guys turn there, we'll be looking at verses 20 and 21 and trying to get my thing here ready, sorry. So Ephesians 3, and by the way, this is one of my favorite books in the Bible and actually one of my favorite verses in the Bible. I quote this verse a lot. I give this verse out a lot because it's a very powerful verse. So let's read this verse 20. I pray that through me tonight, you will use me to be that trumpet, the sound loud and that your spirit will speak to every heart in here, Lord. Father, perhaps it's a reminder to many here that you are able, perhaps it's more of an encouragement for some to trust you with their lives and maybe there are some that aren't even Christians here tonight that are going to be confronted with your truth about how powerful you are and I pray that you change their minds and that you will bring salvation into their own lives. And so Father, we give this night over to you now. Have your way in our hearts in Jesus' name, amen. While the great D.L. Moody, the evangelist, was dying, he was on his deathbed and he had his kids next to him and he turned to his children and it was reported that he said this and I quote, if your partner is God, make your plans large. His final words was this to his kids as he was dying. D.L. Moody had these words, these last words to his family because he believed in the mighty power of God in the lives of people, God's people that is. You see, God is our partner and because God is our partner, then our plans should be big. Sometimes we plan for small things and we forget that we're dealing with the God of the universe, the one that created the heavens and the earth. And so we see here that the only way that you and I are going to understand how big God is and how great God is is by having a greater understanding of who he is. It's revealed here in the Bible. Chuck Swindall said this and I quote, the more you know God, the bigger he becomes. Isn't that true? As you go from Genesis to Revelation and you're looking at all these different things that happen in the Bible, the people that God used, all the different events that happened, you're looking at a God who is mighty and big, right? And so the more you know about God, the more you understand who he is and what he's done and perhaps what he's going to do in the future, the greater understanding you're going to have of him, the bigger he becomes. And that is very helpful when you're going through a trial in your life. And so we come to this section and Paul the Apostle wrote this book of Ephesians. Paul the Apostle had a greater understanding of God, which led him to pray for God to do some pretty amazing things in the lives of these Christians living in Ephesus. And Paul the Apostle pens this and in fact, as he writes this book, he uses the word power. Now the word power in the Greek throughout this book means dunamis, where we get our word dynamite. And so he goes through this book and six times he uses the word power to basically describe God's ability. Let me give you a quick little tour. Go to chapter one, verse 19. Listen to this. He says, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power. Now go to verse 21, same chapter one. Far above, he says, he's all far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And then he says in verse seven of chapter three, the chapter that we're in. He's talking about the Gentiles. He says, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power. Here's the last one, chapter six, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Man, you look at that and you're like, I think Paul knew a little bit about the power of God there, right? I mean, he's writing about this thing here. And in chapter three, as we get into chapter three here, Paul includes his second prayer in the book of Ephesians. The first prayer was in chapter one. And he's a man of prayer and he prayed for them. And so chapter three here in the book of Ephesians is the end of the first of three main themes throughout the book of Ephesians. Let me break the book up in three ways here for you. Some of you probably are familiar with this. But chapters one, two and three of the book of Ephesians, Paul reveals to us who you are in Christ's. You're worth in Christ. You've been chosen from the foundations of the earth. You've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. He goes on and on and on and to tell you as a Christian that you are worth a lot. Now, after that, he gets into chapter four from chapter four and the middle part of chapter five. He says, now since you know who you are in Christ, walk worthy of that call. Then he gives you practical steps. Walk in worthy. Don't lie to each other. Don't steal and all these different practical things. And then after you know who you are in Christ, after you're walking worthy of your call of who you are in Christ, then he says in chapter six, prepare for battle. Because you see as a Christian, you're in a battlefield. The moment you got saved, you went on God's side, right? And you made war with the devil. And so now he says, prepare for battle, chapter six. We read that just recently, just a little bit ago. He talks about the wife, the husband. He talks about the employer, the employee, and a father. And he says, now there's a spiritual battle going on in these areas as a father, as a husband, as a wife, as a dad, and all of this. He says, prepare for battle. Because he says that we are not fighting a physical war. We're fighting a what? A spiritual war. And so the enemy right now is working overtime in marriages. He's working overtime in families. And so Paul tells us, hey, be careful. Know that here's the armor of God. Pray through it. Wear it because the moment that you walk out of your house, guess what? You're entering the mission field. You're entering a battlefield. And Paul even said in Corinthians that he's not ignorant of the devices that Satan uses against us. See as Christians sometimes, we walk out of the house and we forget that we're walking into a battlefield. And then at the end of the day, we come home wondering, what happened? You start questioning your salvation. You start questioning whether you're a real Christian. And you're like, no, you just went through a major battle and you forgot to be prayed up. And so Paul says it here. He makes it very clear that when he wrote this letter here, the book of Ephesians here, one thing that you have to understand is that Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter. And not only was he just in prison, he was chained to a Roman guard. Imagine being chained to somebody, a guard. Now the cool thing about that, Paul is the man of prayer. There's two prayers in here. And I'm sure Paul prayed a lot. And could you imagine how uncomfortable that Roman soldier was when he started to pray? When he bowed his knee down and began to pray. I wonder how that Roman guard prayed. I guarantee you, he prayed for that man. You know how non-Christians get uncomfortable when you begin to pray, right? Maybe you go out to eat and you take a friend who's not a Christian and say, hey, we're going to say grace over our food. And they're like, huh, what's that? Then you start praying and you hold their hand, right? Or whatever. And you know they're uncomfortable. They're kind of twitching and doing this like, okay, when is this over? Right? And could you imagine being chained to Paul the apostle, who's praying and this Roman guard must have been so uncomfortable. And so here we see that Paul is writing this letter and he is praying for these Christians in Ephesus. He prays for their enablement. God would strengthen them by his spirit. He prays that Christ might dwell in their hearts through faith. He says that God may have that peace that surpasses understanding and all these different things. These are huge prayers that Paul is praying for these Christians. And then Paul also mentions there's a mystery. When you read the book of Ephesians, you're like, what mystery is he talking about? It was a mystery that was hidden in the Old Testament. What was that? The revelation of that Gentile and Jew relationship. They were at odds. They were at odds. You could never get a Jew and a Gentile and non-Jew together religiously, even socially. They were completely at odds. And for anyone in that day to see, to even think that a Jew and a Gentile would ever come together and be one family, they would think you're nuts. It was impossible. And Paul is just baffled that God took the barrier. He removed the barrier that separated the Jew and the Gentile and he brought them together. And that's in chapter four, where one body. That's the mystery that he talks about. And Paul is like, I can't believe this happened. Remember Paul hated Christians, right? He was a Pharisee. He was from the tribe of Benjamin, he said. And so for him, as a Jew, to see that now his calling was to go to the Gentiles, that was crazy. But that was a mystery that God revealed in the New Testament. And so this great mystery Paul talks about throughout this book. And that mystery was accomplished because of the power of God, which came through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He united them two to become one. And so Paul concludes that prayer in chapter three and he concludes it by ascribing the glory be given to God in the church by Jesus Christ for all eternity. And then he comes to that very last verse, verse 20, verse 20. It's a doxology or a benediction. Well, what's a doxology? Well, a doxology, according to Webster dictionary, is an expression of praise to God, whether it's verbal or written. And so chapter three, verse 20, in context, is about the ability of God in those things that Paul prayed for the Christians. And not only that, but also revealing the nature of God as seen throughout the Bible. So Paul has this context here in chapter three. He's talking about the Christians, that I'm praying that God's love would be overwhelming in your life, that God's spirit would dwell in you, that the fullness of God will dwell in you and all this stuff. And he says God has that ability to do that. That's the context. But I want to say this, because I want to be fair to this context. I don't like springboard preaching where you get a verse and you springboard off of it and you never come back to it. I want to be fair to the context because that's Paul's hearts. But I want to go a little bit beyond this, not so much out of context, but I want to look at this because this is the nature of God here. We're looking at something that is very important for us Christians to understand something about God's capacity. Because, see, Paul is talking about all the practical things that he prayed for these Christians. He talked about the union that the Jews and the Gentiles now have because of God's ability. But I want to look at this and say, well, okay, that is true right there, Paul. But Paul would probably say to us, but God also has an ability to do a lot more in your life. And this is where I want to look at. Verse 20 expresses God's capacity to transcend all that we ask or think. So let's look at this, verse 20. Now to him who is able. I want to stop right there. To him, no other God but God. And he says, who is able? Speaking of God's power, who is able? We sang that song earlier today. I read a story about a woman who once approached the famous preacher G. Campbell Morgan. And she came to the pastor and she said to him, do you think we should pray for even the little things in our lives or just for the big things? Well, Mr. Morgan replied and said, madam, can you think of anything in your life that is big to God? Sometimes we're like that, right? It's like, no, I'm only going to pray when I really need help. Other than that, I'm okay. It's like God can't even do it. But the question that you have to ask yourself is this. Is God able? It's a question I think a lot of us struggle with. Is God able? In fact, I believe it is the most critical issue for living the Christian life and that is the ability of God. You probably have been stuck in situations, heart circumstances where you're wondering, Lord, are you able to bail me out and you struggle? And perhaps you begin to doubt, God doesn't have that much power to do this. Let me help you. If you really want to have a strong, I guess, understanding of God's ability, and if you've struggled with this ability, whether you doubt it or not, and maybe you're in a situation right now, you're like, man, I'm right there right now. I've been praying for something. Now I'm kind of doubting God that he can really do this or come through in my life. I want you to do something here for you to overcome that doubt, look up. You're like, huh? You're like, what is he doing? Let me tell you why. Jeremiah 32 verse 17. Listen to what Jeremiah said. Oh, Lord, behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you. What led him to conclude there is nothing too hard for you? He looked up. He says, Lord, you made the heavens and the earth. If you're doubting God's ability, go out tonight and look up in the sky and watch. Look at the universe. Look at the stars. Look at the moon. Get overwhelmed with creation. Genesis chapter 1 verse 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If you can believe that, if you can grasp that, then you will not doubt the ability of God. You will not struggle with that is God able. And this is what we come to, is that we have to understand that we have to remind ourselves that God created the heavens and the earth. If he can create the heavens and the earth, if he can create it just spoken into existence, why can't he come through in our lives? Why is it that we have a hard time believing in God's life, though I believe that he created the heavens and the earth? Jeremiah had the right perspective. It's going to help us have a greater understanding of God and his ability. So when you and I are confronted with those situations, then we know that God is able and can bail us out. But not only that, notice he says, not only who is able, but notice to do. To do. He says in verse 20, what does that mean? God uses this power to do something. Paul reminds us that God does things. This is one of my favorite parts of the Christian life. This means that our God is alive and at work. It's simple but very profound. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say this, God is working in us and God never stops working in us. What is that? Well, Robert, prove it to me. I don't know if I believe you. Sure, Philippians 1-6. He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. He who began, not he who finished the work or whatever, he who began, he started something. When you got saved, when you became born again, God began to do a work in your life a little different than before you were a Christian by convicting you, by bringing witness to you about Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross. But then the moment you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and you became born again, then God switches his working in your life and now he begins to work in your life in a different way. That's where sanctification comes in where he sets you apart and begins to kind of weed things out of you. He begins to work in you. I don't know about you in your life every single day and he doesn't stop. Whether you feel it, whether you see it, God is constantly working in our lives. Well, what about when you disobey God and you sin? He's still working in your life. Ask Jonah. Right? Even the disobedient Christian who's backsliding right now, maybe you know somebody, maybe you have a son who's a prodigal son God is still working in that person's life but he's working conviction. He's working circumstances. Remember what happened with Jonah? God created the circumstances. He says he created a storm and it says God created a great fish and it says God did those things. And so that prodigal person, that person who's walked away from Christ and doing their thing, listen, if that person is born again, God is chasing them according to Hebrews because that is a son or a daughter. But if you're on the other side and you're living your life right with God, he's working in your life. And Christians struggle with that because I get questions a lot. Well, I don't know if God is in my life anymore. I don't know if God is doing this anymore. And you begin to question the presence of God. Can sin hinder that? Absolutely. But the thing here that excites me is that God is always working in our lives. Well, what about when you're going through a trial in your life? What about when you're going through that? I feel like God has stopped. No. I mean, even Paul said this. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians 4-17. For light affliction, which is, but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceedingly and eternal weight of glory. God used his trials to work something greater. So if you're going through a trial right now, if you're going through a hard time in your life, God is using that for a greater purpose. That means he's not stopping. He's not quitting in working in your life. He's doing things in your life. I find that exciting. I think that's one of the exciting things about being a Christian is that I have a God who's alive and God who's constantly working in my life. And I think that is very liberating and very encouraging. And that's one thing that we see here that God is able to do. He's working. He's doing something with his power. But God not only possesses power and uses it to do something with it, but notice what he says here. He uses his power and his power is exceedingly abundantly. It's beyond what we anticipate. This is a mindblower here. This is something that it's overwhelming. Notice what he says. He says that he's able to do abundantly above. The word abundantly in the Greek is a very descriptive word. In fact, the English word or the English language limits that word. And what I mean by that is that it doesn't just mean give me more. Abundance. Like when you go to, say, an ice cream store and you buy a Sunday and you're like, I want an abundant of whipped cream on top of that. Right? Maybe you did this before you came here. That's the English language limits that word. The Greek word is far beyond that. It's not just asking for more, but notice here we see that in the Greek it means super abundance in quantity and quality. So a more descriptive picture of what Paul is saying about what God is able to do is this. This is what he's actually saying. To him who is able to do far more super abundantly in quantity and quality than all that we can ask or think of. That's overwhelming. Why does God use this over the top hyper descriptive word to speak about the power of God? Why? Let me give you two reasons why. One, Paul does not have the words to describe the amazing power of God. He doesn't have the words to describe it. And this is not the first time that Paul has come to a dead end in trying to describe the nature or power of God. He did this in Romans chapter 11. Listen to this, verse 33. He says, oh, the depths of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. In other words, like, you know what, I don't know, but man, he is unsearchable. There are questions people will ask you and you're like, I don't know. I don't know the mind of God. If I did, then he wouldn't be a God. I mean, I'd be equal with him and I don't want that. But there are questions that we ask and we probe and we want to go deeper and sometimes we have to do what Paul says, how unsearchable are his judgments. He's past finding out. That's okay, right? That's the problem with us, agnostics. They're trying to understand God. They're trying to bring God to their level. As long as I can understand him, as long as I know what he's like or whatever, then I will believe in him. But because I don't understand God, therefore I'm an atheist. Listen, you're going to stay that way because you'll never get everything about God. You're not going to come to a point in your life where you're like, oh, now I understand everything about God. One of the things that is one of the most important things is the trinity. I believe in the trinity. They're trying to explain the trinity. We use one times one equals one, we use water, vapor, ice, you know, all the same. And we use all these different things, why? Because it's hard to explain the trinity. Now the concept of the trinity is throughout the Bible. Jehovah Witnesses will tell you because the word trinity is not in the Bible, therefore it's not biblical. witnesses either. But it's true. You can't use that argument. I mean people want to find that word in the Bible, right? I mean Christians even do that. Where in the Bible does it say I can't smoke pot? You're not going to find it. I mean they're looking for like specific things but I'll tell you the Bible says that you're to have a sober mind. And so Paul is having a hard time describing to you and to me this amazing power of God. What God has accomplished. What God can do in our lives. It's super abundantly he says. What Paul is doing here he's trying to describe the indescribable. The indescribable. And it's interesting because Paul is trying to use words to tell us this and it's very hard. Have you ever tried to describe an amazing sunset to a friend? I mean the colors, the position of the sun and everything around that. I mean can you really describe this amazing sunset? You can't. You don't have the words that describe it. You're like it was just this ball of fire and there was so bright and the colors were I think blue and orange. I mean you can't you don't have any words. I have a two-year-old and a six-year-old and when they try to explain something to me in their little world they lose it. You know daddy. You know what I mean? My little two-year-old Grayson I mean he's cute you know when he tries it. Daddy, daddy I've got a fire truck look at this. You know I was like oh son I see that. I mean he's so excited to try to tell me about this thing but he loses the words he just I mean his brain's got right. Paul is like let me tell you about God. I can't I can't super abundantly and so he's telling us here one is that he's trying to describe the indescribable but secondly Paul is trying to describe his confidence in just how powerful God really is. He's like I am sold out. I am sold out in the ability of God. I am so sold out. Let me just try to explain it to you. You know when people get involved with these kind of like those amway things you know and they go into classes and then they're sold out on that product right and they'll call you they'll go out with you for coffee and they're just trying to man you got to try this. This is going to do this for you and this and it's only this. I mean they're sold out you know they've been deceived really but they're sold out right. Paul is sold out here. Let me illustrate this. If I were to come up to you and ask you if you could do 10 push-ups what would you say. Of course I could do 10 push-ups. It's not a big deal right. Some of you are like no I can't but let's see for the ones they can. Now if you were really confident you would say yes I can do more than 10 push-ups but if you were really really really confident then you would say actually I can do far more than 10 push-ups but how confident would you have to be for you to respond to me and say you would say Robert I can do far more super abundantly in quantity and quality than 10 push-ups. Whoa really let me see that. That's pretty radical. You've got to be pretty confident there in your push-up ability to make that kind of statement. Paul doesn't just tell us God is powerful because he could have ended that verse in that statement right there and we could have just closed the Bible says okay that's all he said. He doesn't stop there. Paul goes beyond that. He could have made his point with that statement but he doesn't come to that and he says that God can do far more than anything you could ask or think of because that would be basically his huge nature and power to accomplish these things. That's the confidence that he has. Man I'll tell you one thing. I want that confidence in my walk with Jesus Christ that when I'm against things man I could just look up and say man God is able. He's powerful. He can do abundantly above all that I can ask or imagine. To have that understanding, to have that understanding that grasp is very important. Paul is so confident. He's so confident in the power of God. The question that you have to ask yourself is how or answer yourself is how confident are you in the power of God? Do you really believe in the power of God? Do you believe in the power of God? Paul was sold out. He was bold. I mean you look in the writings of the Apostle Paul you can see the things that he did. He was a bold man and as you look throughout the Bible there were some pretty bold people that were sold out in the ability of God. Let me give you an example. I love this example. Turn with me to Daniel chapter 3. Daniel chapter 3. These three Hebrews were extremely bold. I honestly don't know if I would have had that boldness. I would have been crying at that time. Shadrach, Mishach and Abednego were in a very difficult situation. They basically hit a point of no return just to kind of give you a quick little synopsis of this story. You know the king Nebuchadnezzar obviously had you know received word from the sad traps and officers and all of that to basically say you know they were trying to get Daniel in trouble and said hey you know why don't you make a decree and just send it out to the Empire and say hey you guys only worship you know the king and they erected this image and it was obviously an image of the king and at the sound of all these instruments all these instruments everybody's got to worship him or bow down and worship this image and the person that doesn't bow down and worship that image will be thrown into the furnace and the king says that sounds like a great idea. Those guys knew that Daniel was caught praying. That was his custom is praying and so now Daniel I'm sorry that was Daniel Mishach, Shadrach and Abednego now they're in big trouble because now here are these Hebrew believers in God the God of the Bible the God of Isaac, Jacob and Moses and all that and now they're in this situation and all the sound the liar and the harp and all this stuff goes and then they're the only ones standing up they're not bowing down to this image so look what happens and this is where we're gonna pick up the story here chapter 3 verse 15. This is the guys were standing there before they were caught they were they they obviously they were told on and now they're before the king ready to receive their judgments and notice let's start at verse 16 Shadrach Mishach and Abednego answered and said to the king oh Nebuchadnezzar we have no need to answer you in this matter if that is the case here's the boldness our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us from your hand oh king I love this but if not let it be known to you oh king that we do not serve your gods nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up is that bold or what I mean what would you do at that time you're about to be thrown into this fire this furnace you probably like please don't please right but yet these three Hebrew guys had the boldness to say you know what Mr. Nebuchadnezzar God is able to deliver us from your hands and from this fire but if he doesn't just know that we'll never serve your God and you know the story right they were thrown into that furnace walks away from there then he goes back and one of the guys said hey how many guys were down there three there's four one looks like the son of man what they brought him up and the Bible says that their clothes didn't even smell like they were burnt could you imagine that I mean Nebuchadnezzar looked at this and he remembered what they said Meshach Shadrach and Abednego our God is able to deliver us there they go they're coming up out of the door hey I told you I told you that he was able to do that what are you gonna do now what's up right okay we're worshipping your God everybody you know and that's what happened the ability of God these guys were sold out in the ability of God here's another one you don't have to turn there Joshua Joshua was fighting and he was in his battle and he wanted the day to extend he didn't want it to go you know obviously tonight and he says son stand still and the Bible says that the son stood still whoa try that today actually it's too late what I mean what boldness in the in the power of God in the Bible even says this it says and there has been no day like that before or after it that the Lord heated the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel it was because God was fighting for them and yet when he stood there and Joshua said the son stand still relying on that power of God knowing God and God caused that to happen and they won the battle Paul is saying God is of his ability is beyond our understanding and going back to chapter 3 verse 20 he says not only he's able to do exceedingly abundantly but notice what he says above all we ask or think that ladies and gentlemen is a very powerful statement that God is able to go above all we ask or think for the Christians think about this have you ever stopped and asked yourself how God wants to use your life for his glory have you ever stopped and thought about that have you ever imagined what God can do through your life doesn't matter where you've been but but but have you ever thought man what can God do in my life maybe your mind is like really limited like he can't do much I have kids I go to school I gotta work but but have you ever really thought about that I mean when you look at this verse and we see here that Paul is encouraging us and showing us that God is able to go beyond what we ask or think that that's pretty powerful you know there's some young people in here and there's some older people in here as well but we look at this and I'm like no matter how old you are God is able to do abundantly above all you ask or think now this is not a and let me make this quick statement I'm not talking about name it in claiming I'm not talking about the word of faith because they're into that stuff right I mean that's not where I'm at I'm talking about the pure theological power of God what we see in the scriptures this here is very important because what we see here is that we need to just ask God and God has ways to reveal things to us I mean could you imagine what would happen if God came to you first great first Kings three five and he'd said this to you he said it to Solomon I'd give you and the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night and God said ask what shall I give you whoa that's a dangerous question right for a lot of you here right you like yeah don't ask me that Lord God came to Solomon says ask what should I give you wow if God did that man I would be like Lord come back to me in a week I need to really think about this I need to just just really I mean to forgot to put you on that spot you know what he asked right just give me the wisdom to lead your people that's really that's awesome Solomon I said well because you didn't ask for these things I'm not I'm gonna give you fame I give you I mean your riches and and God went beyond what he asked you see that you went beyond that and so we see here that God is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or think and that's exactly what Jesus said to us in Matthew 7 7 ask and it shall be given to you ask ask and it shall be given to you it reminds me of Nehemiah chapter 1 Nehemiah who was burdened over the people of Israel the city of Jerusalem was burnt down the gates the walls were knocked down and the city was very vulnerable to attacks and he heard about the distress of the people and when the report came to Nehemiah the Bible says Nehemiah wanted to prayer read that Nehemiah chapter 1 and he went to pray and he asked God for something pretty big he basically said to him and I'm only paraphrasing here he said Lord can you give me the opportunity to go and be that man to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem he was already he was with with the Persian king that was his boss he was the cut bearer not a job that I would apply for if you know what that is you drink and eat the food of a king and if it's poison guess what you get it first if you ever see a job like that in the paper don't apply for it especially if they don't pay a minimum wage right and so here is Nehemiah praying pouring out his heart and he's saying Lord I want to be the man that you can to be sent over to rebuild the walls and here he's in a situation where he needed finances he needed material and permission and all he did is he laid his heart before the Lord and said Lord this is what I'm asking this is what I'm praying for I know this is gonna bring you glory and what happens God not only gave him permission to leave his posts as the king said sure how long are you gonna be gone not only that but then he provided the workers and the material God went beyond what he asks he probably didn't even know how is this can even happen sometimes you know we we tend to kind of squash each other's prayers you know we're like you know I feel like the Lord is calling me to go to African and minister to the orphans out there yeah right come on seriously man just just continue to work here you know just stay where you're at and it crushes you like yes all right well instead we should be like praise God why don't you ask the Lord pray why can't God open that door for you and so we see here that this is something that Paul is kind of explained to us when it comes to the ability of God that we have to understand that God can do a lot in our personal lives a lot of Christians don't spend time thinking about or imagining how God can use their lives in a powerful way for his glory because deep inside they don't really believe in Ephesians 320 they're like well this is great I mean a lot of us here believe in the power of God you read it throughout the Bible oh yep yep yep yep yep but then all of a sudden it's like it's hard when it applies to us like well I don't know if God was gonna really do that if I asked you if you believe God has the power to bring revival to your neighborhood you would say amen absolutely but then if I say he wants to use you you're like oh wait seriously wait I believe you could do revival but but me I don't know the Bible to I don't know me why what why can't God use you have you ever asked God to use you to end the drug trafficking that's in the Inland Empire to be that person to bring a stop to it by bringing the gospel in those areas no are you serious that's like I'll get shot anyways but I mean you know actually the Inland Empire is actually they call it the pipeline of drugs and it was actually one of the tops in the United States where a lot of drugs are coming through in the Inland Empire now I'm not saying that maybe you're called to that but but but I mean these are things that maybe somebody is maybe you had a past with drugs in drug dealing you're like you know what I would love to go back into that but as a Christian person and to bring the gospel and to stop this why can't God do that we think well I don't think that's gonna happen maybe maybe God is gonna use you to reach the next generation how is that gonna happen that's up to God we have to be straight out with God we have to bring it to the Lord imagine if Bill Gates was sitting outside the door of these this chapel here and he said that after service you can go to him and ask him for whatever you want because he's got the resources to give you whatever he's not gonna maybe you know he's not necessarily obligated to give you what you're asking but he says but I want you to ask anyways now I guarantee you a lot of you here right now would be already lined up outside and Bill Gates the rich one of the richest man in the world right I doubt that some of you would go up to Mr. Bill Gates and say can you just pay my electric bill or you know what I would love for you to take my family out to in and out after this he would probably look at you say sure I can do that but do you know who I am and the resources I have I wonder it when we go to God in prayer and we bring these requests to the Lord and we bring these small things to God things that we think okay this is manageable these are the things that I could probably do and God looks at you and says okay I can do this for you yeah I can step in but do you know that I can go beyond this do you know that see that's the whole point that I'm making here with this text is that God is able to do abundantly above all that we ask or imagine and leave it up to God and God is not obligated to give us everything we ask he knows that and you know that but if it's a pure heart truly wanting to glorify God listen you would be surprised if God stepped in and says doors are beginning to open for you now it would blow you away we see here that Paul is telling us that God is able to do all no note the word there all meaning that God can do more than most of what we ask he can do all that we ask or think this does not mean that we can command God to give us what we want obviously from our perspective it means that God can answer prayer beyond our expectations it is God who has this ability not us he will do above what we ask or think and that's the whole point that God can do more in us than we have the capacity to conceive Paul prayed for big things in the lives of these Christians in Ephesus that God's love would dwell with them that his fullness will be in them and if you were to say you know I want I'm gonna pray for you that that the love of God would overwhelm you like oh no no God has the ability to do that God has the ability to do that Paul here points Paul's point here is that the power of God is able to do utterly unimaginable things like he did with the Jews and the Gentiles and brought them together and became one family incredible right there but Paul says something stunning here he says that God's power this power he's talking about is that working you and you I think about it born again Christian sitting here looking at me right now the power of the resurrection is working in you and it's through the power of the resurrection that God does things the work he does in us and the work he does through us Paul says that God is glorified in the people that he's called out in verses in verse 21 God's power is at work in God's people to his glory and that includes you and me today and that's the encouraging thing I'm gonna close with a few thoughts the title of this message was how big is your God and you have to really think about this this is a question that you need to answer tonight if you hear tonight with a low view or a low understanding of God I pray that the Holy Spirit changed your mind and that you're gonna walk out of here with a good grasp and a greater understanding of the ability of God of his capacity to know that the same power that resurrected Jesus from the grave is at work in your life so what should you do we went through a lot okay Robert that's some pretty strong points you made okay so what do you want me to do what should I do because God can do abundantly above all that we ask or think first thing you need to do is pray pray pray for God to use you and don't be afraid listen you don't have to be a seminary student a Bible caller a Bible college student a scholar whatever to be used by God so people think well I gotta have 15 years of you know seminary to be used by God no you don't the Bible says there in Acts chapter 4 that the apostles were uneducated it says I'm not against education I think education is important I went to Bible college and I still study even to this day but those are not prerequisites from the Lord if you have a good understanding of the essentials of the Christian faith God can use you you don't need to know the Greek or the Hebrew or all the positions that are out there those are good things to know but that's not at the prerequisite the God says you have to have these things down before you can use you pray pray and ask God Lord how do you want to use my life if you're a young person Lord how do you want to use my life if you're an older person Lord how do you want to use the remaining days of my life it's a challenge to you because God is able remember D. L. Moody and I'll leave you with this he said if God is your partner make your plans large amen