The Only Strength That Matters // Ephesians 3:14-20

Welcome to the Movement Church Podcast. We want you to know that God is

for you and so are we. You're about to hear a sermon from one

of our weekend services in Palmer Lake, Colorado. We pray that your faith

is provoked, your mind is renewed, and your heart is awakened as you

engage the Word of God. Stay tuned back from the message for ways to

get connected with us. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in. Well,

good morning everybody. Good to see y'all. We got an extra hour

of sleep and it's a bye week for the Broncos, so we got a

full house. It's pretty exciting. It's good to see y'all. I'm Richie

Fike. I'm the pastor here and it's a good day to be in the

House of the Lord. To talk a little bit about strength today. And

before we do that, I want us to read our scripture. So we're

going to be an Ephesians three fourteen through twenty one. So if you have

a Bible, open it up. If you've got a device you can fire

it up, or if you have eyeballs, we've got a big old TV

up here. You can look up on the screen I'll be in the NLT

Okay. So this is Ephesians three, verses fourteen through twenty one says this,

when I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray

to the Father, the creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I

pray that from his glorious unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength

through his spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts. As

you trust in Him, your roots will grow down into God's love and keep

you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's

people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep

His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is

too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the

fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now, all glory to

God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us,

to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to Him into

Church and in Christ Jesus, through all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

This is the word of the Lord. So we're in this book called

Ephesians, and we've been talking a lot about you know, Paul writing this

letter to the Ephesians from a prison cell. And so today I want to

tell you just a little bit about power and strength and wellness. And there's

no place in Colorado Springs that is more interested in power and strength and wellness

than Lifetime Fitness. I am a member of Lifetime Fitness. I mean,

just look at this place. It is screaming out power and strength and wellness.

Now, if you've ever been to Lifetime Fitness, you might know that

the bottom level of Lifetime Fitness is very like low level of maintenance, low,

low level of commitment. Like bottom level is basketball and tennis. That's

my world. There's a pool on the bottom level, there's locker rooms,

there's a spa, there's you know, a hot tub and a sauna.

Really low level of commitment. Now the top level, like upstairs, you

got to go upstairs to the top level of Lifetime Fitness. There's things happening

upstairs at Lifetime Fitness that I'm afraid of. There's things happening up there that

honestly, when I go up there, I'm really like intimidated by it.

Like there's people up there that freak me out. Like everybody always looks like

this, They're always happy and sunny and fit, and they just they just

look they look happy that they're so fit and they're fit because they're so happy,

and I don't like them. And you know, there's people with they're

just doing exercises all the time, and this guy's given out high fives and

sweaty all the time, and there's people doing planks and stuff, and I'm

just like, I'm just up here to just get on the elliptical because I

have a tennis match. That's the only reason I came up here. And

I just tried not to make eye contact with anybody. And so, you

know, but I you know, personally for me, Richie fikeer pastor with

fitness and weight has been kind of a lifelong issue for me. You know,

fitness has been a problem in my family. You know, butts are

big in the Fight family. We you know, we we're large. We're

large in the Fiight family. And so you know, this is me about

fifteen years ago when and no I didn't blow the picture up. That's life

size. That's I was. I was three oh seven in this picture.

That was fifteen years ago, and so I worked really hard to get down

to two thirty five that was the lowest I'd ever weighed. And when I

moved to Baton Rouge from Colorado at two thirty five, do you know what

my friends in Louisiana said to me. They said, boy, you're skinny.

You need to eat something. Boy, they don't feed you in Colorado.

What's wrong with those people? And so I gained a lot of weight

when I moved back to Baton Rouge. But so, you know, anyway,

I say all that to say that in America, specifically in America,

fitness and strength and health is a big, big deal. It's something we

think a lot about. In fact, according to the Global Wellness Institute,

America ranks number one in the world in spending in the physical activity market.

In twenty twenty two, Americans checked this out. We spent two hundred and

sixty four point six billion with a bee on physical activity. The GWI also

reported that Americans ranked twentieth in the nation in physical fitness and all the other

nations. So there's a great hunger in our culture for power and fitness and

wellness and strength, and we're willing to pay for it, but it's not

really making a difference in the country. They said this While physical activity is

a massive two hundred and sixty four billion dollar commercial segment in the US,

there is a major disconnect sedentary lives, obesity, and chronic disease are escalating

right alongside the fitness market's explosive growth. In fact, the US ranks twentieth

in physical activity participation fifty eight percent, significantly behind leaders like number one Australia,

number two Taiwan, number three Norway, and number four New Zealand,

where participation ranks in the eighty percentiles. So Americans are spending tons of money

on physical fitness, wellness, health strength. But we're spending all this money,

but we're still not measuring up to other countries that are living that way.

Now again, I'm from Louisiana. So in Louisiana, we fry our

fried foods like we don't like, we don't really care that much about physical

fitness. There are people that you see with six packs abs, and we're

like, what happened to you? Are you okay? Are they're not feeding

you? Like? You know? So, Like I looked it up,

Louisiana is number forty one in the in the country. We're the forty first

healthiest state. So you know, Mississippi's doing worst, and so we're proud

of that. We live in Colorado. Where do you think Colorado ranks?

You're all wrong. Colorado is the number one healthiest state in the country.

Colorado is the number one. Now, if you were to look up Colorado

cuisine, what is Colorado cuisine known for? A Maria? This church?

John John said foot For the podcast listeners, John Wilson said, marijuana.

Now, this is what Colorado's like to eat. I don't understand you people.

You like to eat granola like it's wood. Why do you want to

eat wood? I don't understand you people. Berries? You like berries?

Right? Elk meat is huge on the list of Colorado. And you know

man cannot live without a taco truck. That's Colorado, right, No,

Colorado is the number one fittest state in America. Highest rate of physical activity,

lowest rate of adult obesity, lowest rate of adult diabetes, Over four

hundred fitness centers in the state of Colorado, number one in America, and

fifty eight fourteen ers, fourteen thousand foot or whatever it is mountains to some,

but I don't know what it is. Our guy Britt back here in

the back. You've climbed all fifty eight, is that right? And on

a newly reconstructed knee just recently climbed to fourteen or isn't that right? Give

it up for britt my Man's amazement. Yeah. So in Colorado, physical

fitness deeply matters to the people of Colorado. But there's something that's happening in

America and in the world, but specifically in America, beyond just physical fitness

that's becoming really important. There's a different kind of strength, a different kind

of wellness that we're all really interested in, and that is mental strength.

Mental strength, Now, mental strength is the cognitive and emotional skill of reframing

negative thoughts and adverse circumstances. Being mentally strong or mentally tough helps us resist

both internal and external influences that weaken our self confidence and well being. Last

year, twenty twenty two, the number one Google search in the world,

of the top ten Google searches, the number one was how can I get

mentally strong? This is what across the world. This was the number one

thing that was googled last year. So in our culture, in our world,

there's this hunger for physical strength. There is a hunger for mental strength.

There's a great longing in our culture for strength, and when anybody that

we see conveys any kind of strength of any sort, we are drawn to

them. Whether it be a politician or someone from pop culture, or some

preacher or some talk show host that conveys a sense of inner strength, we

are drawn to them. When I watch football, I always like to watch

the game about an hour and a half after it starts because I hate commercials.

So I'm a DBR guy, so IDBR and I just wait an hour

and a half so I can skip through the commercials. Night for the LSU

Alabama game, I went over to Chico's house and he doesn't have DBR,

so we watched it live. And I was amazed at the commercials last night.

Honestly, I couldn't believe how many different ways they were able to fit

Deon Sanders and Nick Saban into the commercials. There were like eleven different ways

that they fit these two guys into commercials. Why, Because these two men

exhibit inner strength, and so whatever they have, we're willing to listen to

them to sell us whatever they want to sell us, because they possess inner

strength, So whatever they have, it must be good for me. This

is the way the world works. And yes, my tiger's loss, and

yes I'm okay because the nuggets are five and one. Okay, So the

world, the world would have us pursue physical, emotional, mental, social,

political strength, but all of those pursuits will only serve to distract us

from the only strength that matters. And if you're taking notes today, that's

the phrase that I would have you write down. There is a strength and

it is the only strength that matters. And that's what we're going to talk

about today. And listen, strength matters. Being strong matters, especially in

this crazy life. Because life is difficult. I have never given you a

phrase in the history of my preaching that was more ready for you to say

amen to than this one right here. Because life on earth is difficult and

your line is amen. I've never said anything truer except for Jesus as Lord.

And your line is okay. You should be more vociferous about that line.

But life on earth is difficult, and everybody in this room carried in

with them a different kind of difficult. There are middle schoolers in this room

right now. Let me tell you that is a different kind of difficult than

my kind of difficult, and it's difficult. Come on, if you've been

through middle school, can you say amen to that? There are parents of

middle schoolers in this room, and that is a different kind of difficult.

Okay, so you got louder. You see right, everybody brought into this

room their own kind of difficult, and every kind of difficult is going to

require a certain kind of strength. And it's a kind of strength that lifetime

fitness can't offer you. It's a kind of strength that Google can't offer you.

It's the kind of strength that mental strength, mental wellness is not going

to offer you. There is a strength, and it's the only strength that

matters. And especially this happens whenever you decide that you're going to follow Jesus.

Because the moment that you declare war on the enemy, the moment that

you say I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning

back. See, because before you said that you were participating with the Prince

and the power of the air, and he was cool with you. The

moment that you decided that you were going to follow Jesus, now you have

an enemy in the enemy, and that's a problem because now you're difficult.

It just became compounded, and you're going to need a different kind of strength.

When you had a friend in the enemy, you only thought life was

hard. Now that you've declared war on him, you're going to need a

different kind of strength. So today we're going to talk about the only strength

that matters you. Ready, all right, So Paul says in Ephesians three,

he says, when I think of all this, I fall on my

knees and I pray to the Father. Now this is going to require some

backstory. When I think of all this, what's the all this that he's

talking about? So we're picking up in Ephesians three fourteen. He's talked from

Ephesians Ie through Ephesians three thirteen. He's talked about this incredible, beautiful theology.

Ephesians is like this beautiful, comprehensive, amazing, dense, theologically beautiful

package of here is what the gospel is. It's amazing. If you really

want to understand just the dense, beautiful theology of Jesus Christ, Ephesians has

it for you. And he's laid it out for us in one through three.

So go listen to the podcast and check it out right, or go

back and read it for yourself. But what he has spelled out for us

in the verses leading up to this moment is he spelled out for us his

particular part in the puzzle, which is that Paul grew up the child of

a Pharisee. He grew up the child of a very lawkeeping, law abiding,

law enforcing Pharisee who told him that anybody who wasn't who wasn't a Jew,

was not to be touched, not to be talked to. They were

unclean in every way. And now Paul has become the one who is speaking

to all the Jews and saying you are welcome in the Kingdom of God.

And Paul is blown away by all of it. Look at this. In

Ephesians three seven through ten, he says this, of this gospel, I

was made a minister. Paul is blown away that he was made a minister.

He's like, I'm as surprised as you are. I was made a

minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the

working of his power. It's not about me, It's about him, he

says to me. Though I am the very least of all the saints.

This grace was given to preach to the gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

And I just love that phrase, the unsearchable riches of Christ. He's saying

that you could plummet to the deepest depths of who God is. You could

go as far down, as wide, as high as you could get,

and you will never come to the end of the riches of who God is.

He is unsearchable. And you ought to say, amen, it's a

great, great truth. Verse nine, he says, and to bring to

light for everyone, not just the Jews, but for everyone. What is

the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things?

So that through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be

made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. What Paul's saying

is, guys, it's amazing. It's all happening. It's all happening right

now. It's all happening. Everything that we've all wondered about. How is

it going to happen? How is this Messiah thing going to work out?

It's all happening. This is crazy, it's incredible. He's saying that all

of the supposition and questioning and wondering and hypothesizing about the work of Messiah and

what the promise actually meant, it's all been laid to rest. It's all

happening. He's saying that there are angels in heaven that were wondering how's this

all going to work, and now they are seeing for themselves exactly how it's

all going to happen. And it's going to happen through us, through the

Church. He's saying, it's all happening. It's amazing. And when I

think of all this, I fall to my knees. I fall to my

knees and I pray to the Father. So how do we access the only

strength that matters? Now, I'm not a weightlifter, but I have some

friends that are. I don't work for a moving company, but my dad

did for a long time, and I have helped a lot of people move

their things from their homes into you know, big boxes or into moving bands.

And they will all tell you the same thing that when you lift,

what do you lift with you lift what you lift from your from your knees,

how do you access the only strength that matters? Lift from your knees.

You know that song we sing, that Phil Wickhams song. So when

I fight, I fight on my knees. Have you ever thought about how

ridiculous that phrase is? Like? Can you imagine if you're watching a UFC

fight, have you ever thought about this? Like Okay, ding ding dang?

Round one? This guy is lining up to fight. The other guy

goes, okay, let me just get down on my knees, and he

just with my hands lifted high, he gets down on his knees before his

opponent. What would happen one quick blow? This dude's done right? Sorry,

I do I mean to go to that slide? When I fight,

I fight on my knees with my hands lifted high. Why Because the battle

doesn't belong to me. It belongs to you God. So if you want

to access the only strength that matters, you have to do exactly what Paul

does. He says, When I think of all this, I fall to

my knees and I pray. I pray. So my question to you is

what's your prayer life looking like? How connected are you to the Lord?

We live a world that is so connected, and yet we live in a

world where people are so isolated. The number one thing that we are hearing

about when we talk about mental health in this culture is isolationism. How in

the world can anyone in twenty twenty three claim to feel isolated when we have

cell phones where we can text anybody we want, when we can actually,

by the way, teenagers, the phone that you have in your hand actually

is a phone. Did you know that you can call people on it.

You can talk to people on the view. You could say, call mom.

You can do that and then she'll pick up and you'll hear her voice,

and then she'll hear your voice and you can talk to her. Okay,

all right, Or you could face time, right, you can see

her face, see their face, or you could get on social media and

do the DM thing. I'm not into all that, but you could do

that. Last night, this was hilarious. I wish Hannah was here so

I could embarrass her. But last night at Chico's house, Hannah, they

have this app. I don't know what's the name of the app that you

guys have that where you're tracking Hannah's every move. What's it called? Is

it Live three sixty? Yeah? So they have this app where like,

so we're sitting there waiting for Hannah to get to the house, and she

was working, and Chico had cooked fajitas, which were delicious. By the

way, you should have these fajitas. But Hannah stopped at McDonald's for some

reason, and Joy goes, why is she at McDonald's. I was like,

what's going on? She got and so she called Hannah, why are

you at McDonald's right now? And Hannah picked up the phone. She's like,

I wanted to make flurry let me alone, right But anyway, So

we have all of these ways to be connected with each other, right,

we can be connected, and yet we're so isolated. I was. I'm

the type of person that in my prayer life for a long, long,

long long time, the way I would connect to God is first thing in

the morning, I would get up, I'd read a little bit of the

Bible. You know, you can be as rigid about your Bible reading as

you want to be. For me, I read the Bible until the Lord

speaks something to me. Maybe that takes two or three verses, maybe that

takes two or three chapters. I just read until I feel like He spoke

to me. That's that's my ritual. So that's what I do. So

I read, he speaks to me, I write a little journal thing,

I pray, and then for me, it's like, okay, I'm going

about my day and I'll talk to you tomorrow. Lord. Like that was

for a long time. That was how my life and my connection with God

was. And then I was watching an LSU football game, Barry, I

know you can't believe this. I was watching an l S football game and

the Lord spoke to me. I know that never happens to you when you're

watching the Alabama roll Tide. But when I was watching LA football game and

we got this new offensive coordinator, and they had this structure with this team

with this new offensive coordinator where he would call the play. They would huddle,

then they would come up to the line and they would line up like

they were going to run the play right, and they would get real tense,

real tight, like they were going to run the play, and they're

looking around and he's even barking out like ninety seven to two, you know,

he's like calling out the calls. And then they would all relax and

they would look back to the sideline, and then the coaches and the people

on the sideline were holding up all these weird cards with like Kevin Hart and

like Darth Vader and like a beat symbol, you know, a Martian,

and they mean things. I don't know what they mean, but they either

mean that we're going to continue to run the play that we've called, or

that the offensive coordinator, because he looked at what the defense did in response

to how the offense lined up, is this going over your head? Are

you with me? The defensive coordinator on the other side has looked at what

the offense did in lining up, and the offensive coordinator is looking at how

the defense lined up to the offense and is now deciding do I still like

this play? So now the team is looking back to the coach and they're

asking the question is this still the play you want me to run? And

the Lord said to me, I wish you would do that. I wish

you would do that with me. I wish you'd look back to the sideline

throughout your day. I wish you'd ask me, is this still the play?

Is this still the play you want me to run? Is this still

what I'm thinking? I wish you'd ask me what I was thinking throughout the

day. I wish you'd stay connected to me, And so I was like,

I'm sorry, Lord, I'm sorry. I'll do that more often.

So see, the Lord can speak through LSU football Barry Okay, Paul says,

when I think of all this, I follow my knees. I don't

just follow my knees, but I pray. I pray, how do you

access the only strength that matters? Lift from your knees. Lift from your

knees, all right. Next one, he says, I pray that from

his glorious, unlimited resources, he will empower you with inner strength through his

spirit. That he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit. Let

me give you the point that we'll unpack it. How do we access the

only strength that matters? We fight from the inside out. From the inside

out. Every other kind of strength that you can access in this world is

going to come to you from the outside in. Whether it be a workout

regime, a self health book, a diet program, all of those resources

are working their way from the outside in. God's power works from the inside

out. So whatever strength of character or will, or personality or discipline that

you display as a follower of Jesus will be evidence of a work that's happening

inside of your soul. If you're a follower of Jesus, if you're connected

to Jesus, if you're looking to the sideline throughout the course of your day

and you're connected to him. When you meet somebody that's doing the same thing,

can't you tell, like right away, Like when you meet somebody that's

connected to Jesus, can't you go that guy right there, that guy's walkome

with Jesus. That lady right there, she knows Jesus. Can't you just

tell? You know why? Because the Bible says that the fruit of the

spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, and self control. Against such things, there is no law.

There's someone you're in the room today, I'm gonna embarrass them. Is

that okay with you? Guys? Okay if I embarrass somebody. My friend

Andrea, who works at Lifetime Fitness, she's here today and she works the

counter at the tennis center. And when I first met Andrea, I was

like, she's a believer. I just know it because the way you smiled

at me, the way you spoke to me, And all I did was

say, hey, I just need a court time on Wednesday, and you're

like, Okay, I'll look for that. And it was the way that

you say things, the way that you interact with people. There's just a

sense that I could tell right away. You know that you're a follower of

Jesus and that just ministers to people. Right. It's just amazing you can

tell when people are connected to Jesus. The world is trying to find strength

from the outside end. The only strength that matters can only be manifested from

the inside out. So how do we access it from the inside out?

Let's keep reading. It says, then Christ will make his home in your

hearts as you trust in him. Listen to this the way he describes this.

I love this. He says, your roots will grow down into God's

love and keep you strong. Your roots will grow down into God's love and

keep you strong. So let me give you the point and we'll talk about

it. How do we access the only strength that matters? We choose to

dig deep. Now I'm not a horror culturist, but I did stay at

a holiday inn, so I'm going to talk you a little bit about it.

Most healthy trees, most healthy trees, roots are roughly six to twelve

feet long, beneath the surface of the ground. Did you know that that

what we see on the top, what we see up here, most of

us are attracted to, you know, a beautiful tree. I'm like the

kind of person the older I get. It was so funny. We went

to Phoenix a couple months ago to drop Justice off. I was fascinated by

the foliage of the different trees, you know, because Phoenix is like a

different planet. If you've ever gone to Phoenix, like it's like, what

is this Like? The trees are totally different than here, Like Louisiana.

We have oak trees here we have pine and you know, other types of

trees like the beautiful trees and breckinridge that when they bloom yellow like that.

I love all that stuff. I'm becoming an old man that likes trees.

Okay, but we pay attention to all of the beauty on top. But

really, what's happening with the tree is happening well below the surface. Six

to twelve feet long. Beneath the surface. Tree roots anchor the tree in

the soil, keeping it straight and stable and absorb water from the soil.

So you might think that a tree is getting fed up here, like when

it rains that all of that water up here is what's feeding the tree.

You know, what's really happening is beneath the surface, all of the root

system is holding on to that moisture and feeding the tree from the bottom up.

Tree roots also take nutrients and chemicals out of the soil and use them

to produce what they need for the tree's growth, development and repair. I

love this. There have been trees found in remote parts of Africa with root

systems as long as twenty four feet under the surface of the ground. Why

am I telling you all this Because what's happening underneath the surface is what's determining

the strength of the tree. I don't have to be an amazing preacher to

tell you this. You probably have already jumped to this conclusion. What's happening

underneath your surface is what's determining the strength of your life and the strength of

your faith. Right, he says, Christ will make his home in your

hearts. As you trusted him, your roots will grow down into God's love

and keep you strong. What keeps a tree from blowing over when the winds

come, when the rains come, when a hurricane comes, when a tornado

comes, it is not the strength of the trunk, it's that root system

that's holding down deep into the ground. What's going to keep your faith from

blowing away in the wind when it gets difficult, when it gets hard?

What's going to keep your life from being uprooted when it gets hard? It's

how deep you digged into God's love, into who he is, and you

have a responsibility your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong.

We have to keep digging into God's love. We have to be responsible

for how much we choose to do that. So how much are you digging

into God's love? How much God is in your diet right? How much

time are you giving to God? How much time are you giving to the

things of God, to the people of God, to the disciplines of God?

Is God just the thing you do on Sundays or on every other Sunday

or on every third Sunday? Is God just the thing you do whenever life

gets hard? Or is God a thing you're doing all the time so that

when it gets hard you're ready. That's what Paul's saying. Christ will make

as home in your hearts as you trust in him, and your roots will

grow down deep into God's love. How do we access the only strength that

matters? We choose to dig deep, and then he goes into this.

This is so beautiful, he says, and may you have the power to

understand as all God's people should. I love that, he says, all

God's people should, because what he's saying is not all God's people do.

May you have the power to understand as all God's people should, but not

all God's people do? How wide, how long, how high, how

deep? His love is the unsearchable riches of Christ. May you experience the

love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then and

you will be made complete with the fullness of life and power that comes from

God. How do we access the only strength that matters? We experience the

fullness of God, not just a little bit the fullness of God. Are

you experiencing the fullness of God in your life? Or are you just kind

of taking little pieces, little dollops, a little dabble do you? Are

you just experiencing little bits of God? Or are you experiencing the fullness as

all God's people should? I sent out a text a few weeks ago to

the people on my text chain. That's what it said, tell me a

moment or story in which you personally experienced the love of God and your life.

And a bunch of you responded, and so I want to let you

hear some of the stories that you told. I love these. Amy said

this. She said, when I was on the fence before giving my life

to Jesus Christ and Father God, I experienced God's calling one night and went

outside, barefoot in the snow. I dropped to my knees and gave my

life to Jesus Christ. I immediately felt the warmth of God wrapping his arms

around me in his everlasting embrace. I love that this person asked to stay

anonymous, they said. The day after my husband and I thought we were

at the end, divorce was on the table and his ring was off.

That night, we both went to work and had to pretend like it was

just another day. I was shaking inside and out, but as much hurt

and fear that I encountered, I had, for the first time an unwavering

sense of love and protection in my heart. It felt like someone was literally

hugging my heart. I had never felt anything like it. I knew it

was God, and I knew he was for me and for us, restored

our marriage and we're closer to him than we've ever been. Praise God.

Andreas said this. For thirty five years, I was in a marriage in

which my husband discouraged, resisted, and looked down upon every way that self

expression was meaningful to me. My joys come from playing tennis, working out

with weights or in classes, going on mission trips, and being around people.

Finally, the time came to divorce and move here to Colorado Springs,

God graciously allowed me to be hired by Lifetime. I'm surrounded daily by people

who love what I love. My job involves interacting with other members and staff,

and I'm happier than I have ever been in my life. I see

God laughing and slapping his knees as he delights in my well being. He

has always loved me and protected my heart through many challenging years. His love

is steadfast and never fails. Amen. My buddy Bryce said, yeah,

man. When I went to boot camp and there I was so scared of

being homesick. I'd never been away from home or my family, and I

was terrified that it would be too much. During my time at boot Camp,

I leaned into Jesus like never, like I had never before, and

I never once yearned for home. I always felt him near and he carried

me through. Mike said this, I have a zillion. I have a

zillion, but I'll describe a more recent one. A friend is a documentary

director, and he brought over a DVD of a documentary he made on the

music of the Jesus Movement era in the late sixties. I was working on

work things in my kitchen while the DVD was playing, and the group Love

Song began singing a song called Welcome Back. The song hadn't gotten through the

first line when the presence of God's love enveloped me. I found myself on

the floor in tears, and I believe the Lord spoke and said, this

is all it takes for me to get your complete attention. And it's not

that you're that you are looking for me, but I want you to know

that I'm looking for you. Even writing the memory down floors me. I

love that, he says, floors me because he was on the floor.

Paul says, may you have the power to understand as all God's people should

how wide, how long, how high, how deep His love is.

May you experience the love of Christ, though it's too great to understand fully,

then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power

that comes from God. I think what he's saying is, guys, we

need to seek to experience the fullness of God. Don't settle. Don't dip

your toe in the water. You know, like cannon ball into the deep

water, the deep side of the pool of God. You know you're never

going to get to the bottom of it, So go for it. Good

Enough isn't even close good enough. God has so much that he wants to

give to you, so much that he wants to show to you. Are

you taking him up on the offer? We need to experience the fullness of

God. Now, this is the last section. This last verse that we're

going to cover is one of my very favorite verses in the whole Bible.

It's a verse that I lean on in my prayer life. It's a verse

that reminds me that my prayers are too small. It's a verse that reminds

me that God is limitless, and that reminds me of my humanity and of

His greatness. Look at this verse twenty, it says, now all glory

to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us,

to accomplish infinitely more then we might ask or think. Glory to Him

in the Church and in Christ Jesus, through all generations, forever and ever.

Amen. Let me give you the point and we'll talk about it.

How do we access the only strength that matters? Before I do that?

Here's the point. Our prayers are too small, they're too safe, they're

too limited. God is able to accomplish infinitely more than we ask or think.

Before we have church in here. On Sundays we all gather up in

a little circle back there, and this morning it was amazing. There were

like six or seven different prayer requests for very real, very concerning problems.

One guy's got a leg problem where he might have to have a leg amputated.

We heard about someone that had a brain injury. We heard about a

bunch of different problems and old an older woman named Bunny, who we are

praying will bounce back right, come on, praise God. We heard about

some very real things. Last week. I shared this story when I led

worship, But we had a snowstorm, so a lot of you weren't here,

so it's okay to repeat it. I led worship in Nashville two weeks

ago, and I think stories like this are so important for us to hear

because it strengthens our faith that God is still moving, that he's still healing,

he's still working. So I'm leading worship at this church in Nashville.

It's six am, and we're doing this like round up before we're going to

practice. And this girl, her name is Kimmy, she's one of the

vocalists. She's kind of amongst us. And the lady who is the MD,

her name is Jordan. She says, okay, guys, we're gonna

pray. So does anybody have any prayer requests this morning? Anything you want

to talk about? And Kimmy says, yeah, I got one. And

so we looked at Kimmy and she says, yeah, I don't want to

be here, just kind of matter of fact, I don't want to be

here this morning. Oh, we'll tell us more about that. Why is

that? She said, Well, my husband Bo, all last week he

was complaining about pain behind his right ear. He was having tightness behind his

right ear. In fact, he was having a hard time hearing out of

his right ear, and so we scaptled an appointment and we went in.

He did an mri uh and and there was a huge tumor that was eating

into his brain on the right side. Uh. And so uh, yeah,

I don't want to be here. I mean, it was just like

that. And so Jordan, you know, I'm a guest worship leader at

this place. I'm just kind of listening. At six am, I'm still

waking up. You know, it's Central time, so it's five am for

me. Oh wow, okay, And so Jordan says, wow a fight.

Will you pray for pray for Kimmy. I was like, say,

what now, Yeah, will you pray for Kimmy? Oh yes, okay,

I'll pray. So I prayed for her and I prayed what I thought

was a pretty bold prayer. I prayed, Uh, Lord Jesus, you

said that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, that we

could speak to the mountains and we would see those mountains move. And so

if you can move a mountain, you can move a tumor. And so

Lord, I ask you in the name of Jesus, that when they go

to the doctor tomorrow, when they go to have an MRI, that that

tumor would be gone in Jesus' name. And I meant that prayer fully.

I don't know that I believe that it would happen. I mean, just

to be frank with you, you know, I meant it. We pray

these things, right, We pray them in boldness, and we kind of

parenthesize behind our thoughts. And even if it doesn't happen, you're still good,

right because we believe that. But God's going pray bigger, pray bigger,

infinitely more so, I didn't think about it again. We let worship,

got on a plane, came home, went about my day on Monday,

and then I got a text at like two pm on Monday from Kimmy

fight. You will never believe what happened. We went into the doctor.

They did an MRI. The tumor is gone. Yeah, praise God.

Come on, you can applaud that. She said, the same doctor that

did the MRI on Friday did the MRI on Monday. And the doctor said,

what did you do over the weekend? And she said, we went

to church and this guy, crazy guy from Colorado prayed for us. So

anyway, I'm thinking about, you know, getting a TV show and now

all glory to God, who's able through his mighty power. But check this

out. Through his mighty power that's at work within us, his mighty power

within us. That's the piece of it that we just blow right by.

And that piece of it is magic, man, That piece of it is

powerful. That's the strength that matters, that the Holy Spirit is wanting to

work through and in and for us. That's who he is. That's powerful

man. There's a mighty power at work within us. The power, the

strength, the only strength that matters is at work within us. And we're

a part of the chemistry. We're a part of the equation. So how

to access the only strength that matters. We participate with limitlessness. That's a

hard word to spell, but it's an important word. We participate with limitlessness.

Listen, God didn't save a bunch of puppets. He saved people.

He saved living, breathing, animated, motivated, gifted, differentiated people.

We sang a song this morning, a song called There's Never Been. The

lyrics were all jacked up on the screen. That's why they were having a

hard time singing with the Jeremiah the lyrics were all wrong the whole time.

We love you, and I think they liked the song, but we couldn't

sing with you because the lyrics were all wrong. But we love you.

But but the song says, there's never been another one, there will never

be another one like you, And that's true of God. But guess what

else, There's never been another one and there will never be another one like

you. There, look at the person next to you and just said,

there's never been anyone like you. And tell the person that you didn't want

to talk to and that's a very good thing. Tell them that's a very

good thing. There's never been anyone like you. There's never been anybody who's

had your experiences, your gift mix, your specific DNA, your talent,

your propensity. There's never been another one like you. You are unique,

and God wants to work in and through you. That is a powerful truth

to think about it. And when you start participating with God's imagination, watch

out. There is no limit to what God can do in and through and

for your life. If you'll just participate with his limitlessness, it's incredible what

he can do. And that is the vision, the dream, the passion

of the Movement Church. We are not fascinated and amazed by someone standing on

a platform preaching a sermon, someone standing on a platform and leading worship.

We are much more interested in what God can do in and through your lives

than what is going to happen on these platforms on Sunday mornings. You are

the Movement Church, and what He's going to do through your life is what

I dream about every night of my life. It's what I am giving my

life for. It's what I am excited about. It's what we and our

leadership team are so fired up to see what God's going to do in and

through your life. These stories that you heard about, these people who experience

the love of God, their job is now to share the love of God

with everybody that they know, and to tell those stories with everybody that they

know. That's your job too. Your job is to share what you have

experienced the fullness of God with every person that you come in contact with.

Because we want to see the dead come to life, the blinded, I

see the lame walk, the broken heart healed, marriage is repaired, families

restored, lives redeemed, and the Kingdom move on the planet and the only

way to do that is to have the only strength that matters be unleashed from

within the hearts of God's people. So I implore you, I would ask

you lift from your knees spend more time in prayer than you have been If

you would just this week, I would just challenge you. Whatever amount of

time is your normal amount of time that you pray this week? Would you

double it? Can you commit to doubling whatever amount of time that you spend

in prayer this week? Double it? I dare you? I double dog?

Triple dog? Dare you? Okay? Double it? Fight from the

inside out instead of trying to find everything from outside of the Kingdom of God

to make you strong. Would you allow the Holy Spirit of God to be

the source that strengthens you, the source that propels you into your life?

Choose to dig deep this week that picture of a tree, allow what's on

top to be driven by what's happening underneath the surface, that your roots would

be strong in God, experience the fullness of God. Come on, don't

dip your toe in the water this week. Do a cannonball into God this

week? Would you do that? And then participate this week with the limitlessness

of God. I dare you to ask him for something this week, so

bold and so audacious that he would surprise you with a yes, so bold

and so audacious that he would say. You still haven't asked me for enough.

You still aren't dreaming enough. Your imagination still hasn't gotten close to the

bottom floor of what I can do. That's the strength that matters, Paul

says. Man, when I think of all this, I fall to my

knees and I pray to the Father. So let's do that now, Jesus,

we come right now before you, and we're so grateful for a God

who's still moving, God who's not finished, a God who's still after us,

a God who's still pursuing, a God who's still healing, a God

who's still redeeming, a God who's still saving. We're so grateful for a

God who's still loving us even when we're not loving you. The Bible says

that we love you because you first loved us. Thank you, Lord for

your goodness, for your kindness, Thank you Lord for who you are.

This week, I pray that you would encourage us to just check in with

you more often than we normally do, to double to triple our prayer life,

to dig deeper in our relationship with you, to choose to enter into

the limitlessness of God, and to watch you surprise us with how amazing you

really are. As you are at work within us. We invite you to

surprise us. Holy Spirit have your way in our lives. So what's God

leading you to do next? And how can we help? Would you send

us an email to info at Movementchurch dot co and tell us how we can

pray for you and help you take the next step in your spiritual journey.

If you'd like to contribute financially to our ministry, text the amount you like

to give to the number eight four three two one, or look us up

online at Movementchurch dot c. You can find the Movement Church on all social

media platforms, and we hope that you'll give us a follow God bless you

and remember God is for you and so are we.