YHWH (Exodus 3) 2- God is Omnipotent

It is so good to see you in the house of the Lord today.

And it is just an honor to be able to do this thing called life together.

And I see some, I see some dads that dressed up a little extra.

I'm talking about Mr.

Jimmy over here, got his suit and tie on this morning.

Everybody looking good today.

Well, if you got your Bibles, don't open up with me.

We're going to be in the second part of a series entitled Yahweh or YHWH, which means Yahweh.

And so get your message notes out, get your Bible journals out.

We're going to be in Exodus 3 and eventually in Jeremiah chapter 32.

Jeremiah 32 · chapter mention

I'm going to make sure you get all of that out and ready to go.

But while you do that, if it's your first time joining us, thank you.

Thank you so much for being here on Father's Day.

We would love for you to fill out your Connect card and you can drop that off in the Welcome Center at the end of the service.

We have a free gift for you, and we want to invite you to the craziest party that you'll be part of called RLC Connect.

And also, while you are getting that ready, I got to say once again, happy Father's Day to everybody.

It is so good to see you today.

And we've got a couple of first-time fathers in here today that have had a baby since last time.

And so I just want to say good luck.

It's going to be all right in Jesus' name.

All right, it's good.

That's really good.

Make sure if you are a dad, we have got a donut wall out there for you.

And make sure you stop and take a look at my favorite photo booth of the entire year, which is it's unavailable today.

All right.

For Father's Day.

So it's so, so very, very, very good.

And last but not least is we do know that there's always a chance on any holiday that you just forgot.

You thought it was the next week.

And so what we do for Mother's Day and Father's Day is we have some free cards out at the Welcome Center for you to write a very long note about how you are so sorry to your dad that you forgot that it was Father's Day.

And we got you.

We got the card, we got the pen.

We'll even produce the fake tears if need be.

But it's up to you to figure out how to get it to your dad by midnight tonight.

All right.

But if you did forget that it is Father's Day, we got you covered and you're just going to have to figure out the rest.

But we want to make sure that we tell all of our dads out there happy Father's Day and my dad who watches uh sometimes online.

Thank you, Dad.

You're an amazing father.

I'm so proud to be your son.

So now that we got that, all of that good stuff kind of out of the way, even it is good to celebrate the Lord.

I'm excited about this series.

I'm excited about the idea of just reminding ourselves about the attributes of who God is.

Because I think that if we're not careful, a lot of times, without meaning to, our idea of God doesn't change, but our problems get bigger and bigger and bigger, and we forget that God is even bigger than we can imagine.

And we just want to kind of talk about that over the course of this series.

And I did this last week, kind of the mental picture.

I want to kind of give it to you again, just to kind of my my hope for us in this series.

The mental picture is I was telling you that a couple of years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to take our girls to the most expensive place on earth.

I mean, the happiest place on earth.

Yes, the happiest place on earth to Disney World.

And one of the things you have to do when you're in Disney World is you gotta go see the fireworks, especially at Magic Kingdom.

And we went and did that.

And we were there and it was great.

Fireworks are going off everywhere.

And I told you last week I saw a few of you look horrified as I told you that I don't really love fireworks.

And the reason why is because I'm colorblind, so I don't see all the colors you see.

I see a bunch of explosions, which I love, but it's fine.

It's just like, well, that's that's great.

That's that's wonderful.

But then they did something that night when they were doing the fireworks.

They took the castle and they started doing all these designs and stuff over top of.

That's an actual picture of what we were looking at, and it just took something that was really cool and it just made it amazing.

And it's like, I had no idea that that was even possible to do.

And I was telling you there was a lady in front of us.

And if you ever been around somebody that you can just tell they're living their best life that day?

You ever been around that person?

I know we've been around the opposite, but you ever been around somebody who just you can tell today is their day.

They're just happy, they're not coming down off that that cloud for nobody.

That was this lady.

She was already having a great time, but when they turned on the lights and they did all of that, she literally like just did this number right here.

Just threw her hands up.

I mean, she would have belonged in any worship service ever.

And I she wasn't like worshiping, you know, the god of you know Cinderella's castle.

That wasn't what she was doing.

But isn't it just like a natural reaction when something goes from really cool to just awesome?

It's just like we're just like, ah, just throw our hands up.

Like when your team wins the buzzer beater, like you don't sit there and go, well, congratulations.

You just throw your hands up.

That was amazing.

That was awesome.

Anytime something just absolutely blows our mind, we just have a physical reaction to it.

And that was this lady.

And that's my hope for us in this series is I want us to remember how big and how great God really is.

And my hope is that at some point there'll be some aspect of God that you're already impressed.

He's already pretty awesome.

But as we remember the greatness of God, that there's at least one time throughout this series that you're just gonna be like, that's awesome.

And so I'm gonna go ahead and give you a free coupon for it.

That's awesome, okay?

At some point over the course of this series, if you learn something about God and you're absolutely impressed, you're allowed at least one time to just be like, that's awesome.

And we're all gonna know, and no one's gonna laugh at you.

Everybody else is gonna be like, right?

You know, that's that's how awesome God is, because that's what we want to do is remember how big God is.

And here's here's the reason why this series is important.

And this is not in your notes, but the two most important truths we believe, I believe, are what we believe about God and who he says we are.

Like from that foundation, everything else flows.

What we believe about God and who he says we are.

And so we're gonna focus on this first one and really think about what we believe about God and really think about how great God is.

And here's the reason why, and that is because if we don't see God clearly and difficulties come, we feel uncertain, afraid, stressed, angry, worried, agitated because we don't know who that is that's supposed to be with us.

We we don't really have a good idea of who God is.

So when difficult times come, we have opportunities to just feel confused.

But here's the great thing, and that is when we have a clear view of God and we allow God to move in our lives, the Bible says the byproduct, the fruit of that in our lives is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And here's the thing: you're doing just fine.

But your neighbor needs some more of that.

So look at your neighbor and say, he's talking about you.

You need this series.

I'm fine, but you could use a little bit more joy, my brother, okay?

You really could use a little more love, my sister, whoever you are.

You could use just a little bit more.

And so here's the big idea of the series, and that is that the more we see God clearly, the more we can see everything else.

The more we get a clear picture of who God is, what his attributes, what his characteristics are, who he actually is, the more we get a picture of him, the more we can see our lives with a clear picture, the more perspective that we can have.

And that's the goal of this series is get a clearer picture of who God is.

So at some point in the series, all we can do is just say, He's awesome and he's amazing.

And so we're kind of reintroducing ourselves to God, I think one of the best places to do that is actually in Exodus chapter three.

Because the Bible tells us that between the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus, about 400 years has passed.

The nation of Israel went down to Egypt to escape a plague, and while they were there, they eventually were enslaved by the Egyptians.

And for 400 years, they were in Egyptian bondage.

To put that in context, you the United States of America celebrates 250 years old this year.

So not quite, but almost double that.

That's how long they've been in slavery.

Their grandparents' grandparents were in slavery, and they were in a polytheistic culture, which means they were a belief in many different gods.

And so they went down there with their hope in God and Yahweh, but as they got around all these other gods, it got crowded.

All of a sudden there's all these other gods and for all these other things, and they're remembering Yahweh, but yet it seemed like this, the troubles and the difficulties began to crowd out how big God was.

And now it's time for deliverance.

And so what God does is he doesn't just assume that they know, he reintroduces himself to the people of Israel, and he does it through a guy named Moses.

The Bible says this it says that that when the Lord looked and saw that Moses was taking a closer look because he had caused a bush to burn but yet not be consumed, God called to him from the middle of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, to which Moses said, Here I am, which once again, if you ever have a bush that's burning and it calls to you, acknowledge it, okay?

Just say, Here I am, all right.

And then he says, Don't come any closer.

Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.

I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And then he begins to tell him how he has seen what's been going on to the people of Israel in Egypt, and it is time for them to be set free.

And he is sending Moses to be the spokesman to set them free.

To which Moses said, No, thank you.

And God said, Don't worry, I'm gonna be with you.

And then he starts to say, But wait a minute.

Well, he says, Uh if I go to the people of Israel, they will ask me, which God?

What is his name?

What should I tell them?

And God replied to Moses and he said, I am who I am.

Say to this people of Israel, I am, has sent me to you.

Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, has sent me to you.

This is my eternal name to remember for all generations.

And I love he says, and also tell them, I see how the Egyptians are treating you.

So, in other words, this is who I am, and I have been watching, and I am coming to set you free.

So, who what is he calling himself?

That what is this idea of I am that I am?

If you're taking notes, I am who I am, is the it's actually four consonants.

And if you want to impress your friends this week, say we talked about tetragrammatons, that that's a really, I'm not even gonna try to spell it because I can't.

I don't know how to spell that word, but it is four consonants that actually means Yahweh.

And we tried this last week, and that is you have to be able to get a little phlegm in the back of your throat because it's Yahweh.

So if you want to try it on a count to three, I want you to look down so you don't spit on your neighbor.

We're gonna try to say Yahweh.

You ready?

Here we go.

One, two, three.

Yeah, that sounded disgusting from up here.

Okay, yes.

But it's Yahweh, and it's actually an action verb.

God is using a verb to describe who he is, and it's this he is saying that I am eternally present, I am unique, I am the sustainer of all things.

In other words, Moses is saying, Okay, which which God should I tell them is is is coming to save them?

And Moses, and God is like, Mo, look up.

I'm I'm not one of these, I'm that one.

I am the God above all these false gods.

I am the one true living God who sustains everything.

Without me, nothing was made that was made.

I I am the one that they have been waiting for.

And so that God is the God that we serve.

And that's the goal of this series is to stop putting God among all of our problems, all of our issues, and all of our things, but to remember that he is above all and he is greater than all, and he's more amazing than all.

Then we have a clear view of everything else.

And so we talked about last week that this true, unique God of ours is holy.

This week we're gonna talk about how our God is holy in his omnipotence.

And I'm gonna give you plenty of time to write that one down because that who when is the last time you wrote down the word omnipotence?

And for extra credit, you can write down an arm, okay?

Go ahead and write down the bicep as well, because our God is omnipotent, which means our God is strong.

Look at somebody and say, My God is strong.

My God is stronger than you.

My God is strong.

God is omnipotent.

Remember, we said last week, holy is God is different.

The word holy means altogether different, sacred in his difference.

He's different in the best possible way.

Our God is different in his omnipotence.

Well, what does omnipotence mean?

Omnipotence, which is really hard to say, is God is all-powerful.

God is all-powerful.

But it's important to say he is all-powerful and his power is guided by his character.

That's important because if God was all-powerful but you couldn't trust him, then you would be afraid of him.

But because God is all-powerful and you can trust him, you fear him with a holy fear because he is good as well.

Let me tell you the difference.

The difference would be imagine there was a stranger comes walking up on you, you don't have a clue who they are, and they've got a loaded weapon.

I don't know about you.

I'm nervous.

I don't know this joker.

I might have to put him down, I might have to just dropkick him in the throat.

I don't know what's going on, right?

I don't know why y'all are laughing.

Y'all don't think I can do it.

All right, listen.

But the thing is, is I don't know, so I'm nervous.

But what if the person you trusted the most comes walking up to you with a loaded weapon?

You're not nervous.

As a matter of fact, you feel safe.

Why?

Because you know who they are, you know their character.

So now all of that power doesn't make you afraid, it actually brings you comfort.

The great thing about God is he is all powerful and he is all good.

Therefore, we can trust his power.

And there's evidence of his power everywhere.

Now, the hard thing about putting this message together is how in the world can we find just one or two examples of God's power?

His power is everywhere.

From Genesis 1.1 to Revelation 22, God is this big, plus some.

So let me give you just three evidences of God's power that we look at and realize he is powerful.

Here, here's the first thing about his power.

We can see his power in creation.

The Bible says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Our God is all powerful, and he showed it in creation.

Let me give you an example.

Let me give you an example.

Once you write that down, I want you to put your hands out like this right here.

I want you to put your hands together.

Hopefully, because this will this will remind you.

Okay.

Now, when you do this, put your hands together and by looking at your hands, not putting anything else in your hands, I want you to create something.

Try to create anything.

Try to put something together.

No, it's not possible, right?

You know what God did?

He put his hands together figuratively, and he made everything you can see.

That's how powerful God is.

God is so powerful.

I mean, like it doesn't matter how hard I try, I cannot make a cup of coffee right now.

Because if I could, I would.

I'd make a cup of coffee for all y'all.

I can't create.

Here's the thing.

We as people, we can take something that's already been created and make something different, but we can't create anything out of nothing.

God created something from nothing.

And here's just a few things he created.

We know that there are roughly 200 sextillion.

That's 200 followed by 21 zeros, stars in the known universe.

And the Bible says he knows them all by name.

Next time you go and you look out and you see all the stars, you look at them and go, that's amazing.

If God were standing there in that moment, you go, Yep, that's Bill and Sue and Thomas, and that over there is, you know, he knows all their names.

Here's another one DNA.

It's the three billion genetic letters making one word that makes up exactly who you are.

It's amazing.

Three billion characters.

It's called the DNA code that makes up every single person that's ever lived.

That's why you, there's only been one of you because of that DNA code.

Here's one more.

Your brain contains more connections than the stars in the Milky Way.

Some of us have more, some of us have less.

But we all do.

That's how God is amazing in his creation.

God is powerful.

That's why I love science so much.

Science and the Bible get along just fine because science shows how God did it, and the Bible tells us why he did it.

He did it to display his glory for all of us.

He shows it in creation.

Here's another one, and that is in his resurrection.

The Bible says in Ephesians 1, it says, you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power, the same power that raised Christ from the dead.

You know what's amazing?

It's people have told me before they say, Pastor, if God were real, why wouldn't he show himself?

Why does he remain hidden?

Why wouldn't he just show who he is?

And we say, you know what would be great?

You're exactly right.

It would be wonderful if God wanted to show us who he was so much that he came in the form of a person and he lived a sinless life.

And then he told them, He said, I want to prove to you exactly who I am.

Kill me and I'll come back to life in three days.

The ultimate miracle.

That's exactly what he did.

Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God.

And he said, Put me to the ultimate test.

You kill me, I'll come back to life in three days.

And he did.

Among so many ways that we know this, there are three major reasons we can believe the resurrection.

Number one is because of the empty tomb.

Don't you think that if he died and did not rise again, the first thing his enemies would have done would have said, Here's his body.

They couldn't do it because he rose again.

Do you know the Bible tells us that Jesus appeared over 500 people?

He wasn't hiding, it's declaring who he was.

And then you've got the changed lives of the disciples.

Before they saw Jesus, they were terrified.

After they saw Jesus, Peter literally stood up in front of all the people that killed Jesus and said, Y'all done killed him, but he's he's alive again and he still loves you.

That's amazing what he did.

And so we see that God is all powerful and he shows us the evidence of his power through so many things, through his creation, through his resurrection.

But maybe one of my favorites is the third one, and that is through transformation.

Here's one of the most amazing things that we can see the evidence of God's power when we look at creation, when we realize that the resurrection really happened.

And then if you want to see the power of God, look to your left and look to your right.

Look at the people who have given their life over to Jesus and watch what the Lord has done.

Nothing else could change our lives the way Jesus can when we go all in for Him.

The great one of the greatest testimonies that God is all-powerful is when you hear the story of somebody who said, I hit rock bottom and then I kept falling.

But then Jesus found me.

And then Jesus saved me, and then Jesus gave me a new life.

Only the power of God could do that, and it's greater than anything else that we can imagine.

Look at somebody and say, My God is strong.

My God is strong, and that's wonderful.

My God is strong.

But here's here's the question of the day, and that is this.

But then how can God's awesome omnipotence, and I'm gonna stop saying that word because I keep on getting tongue tied?

How can his awesome that was the one, that was the limit.

His awesome omnipotence shape how we see everything else.

Other words, why does that matter?

God's big, God's amazing, God's omnipotent.

What can I do with that?

Here's exactly what we can do with it is we can use that to then clearly see everything else in our life.

One of my favorite examples of this is a guy by the name of Jeremiah.

Now, I don't know if you've ever heard me say this before, but I'm gonna go ahead and tell you, everybody's going through a private battle that you don't know anything about.

Look at your neighbor and say, he's still talking about you.

Here's the bad thing about our friend Jerry.

Jerry was actually had a public battle that everyone knew about.

This is what happened with Jeremiah.

Jeremiah was a prophet of God, and he had been telling the people of God for years, listen, if we don't repent, the Babylonians are gonna come and they're gonna take us over.

We got we better repent, we better repent.

And everybody else was saying, nah, not gonna happen.

We're gonna be fine.

And Jeremiah's like, we can't keep sinning and expect God to save us.

We gotta turn around.

Nah.

And he just kept kept going until finally they arrested Jeremiah and put him in the royal prison, which is in the city, uh, in the city of Jerusalem, because they said, When we defeat the Babylonians, Jeremiah, we want you to watch.

And so they put him right there.

And while he is there, the Babylonians come and they lay siege to the whole city.

And now they won't look Jeremiah in the face anymore.

He's like, you know, and then all of a sudden somebody comes along and they say, Hey, we've got some land that we want to sell, and we want you to buy it, Jeremiah.

Well, that would sound like just the dumbest real estate decision ever because if the Babylonians are about to take over, why would you want to buy a piece of property that somebody else is about to take over?

That wouldn't make any sense.

Yet God told him, buy the property.

And so he's in the middle of this situation.

He's going, God, I don't understand why you've got me in this spot and now you're asking me to stay faithful.

Nothing makes sense.

And so he prays to God and he says this: He says, Oh, sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and earth by your strong hand and powerful arm.

Nothing is too hard for you.

You show unfailing love to thousands, but you also bring consequences of one generation's sin upon the next.

You are great and powerful God, the Lord of heaven's armies.

You have all wisdom and do great and mighty miracles.

You see the conduct of all people and you give them what they deserve.

You perform miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, things still remembered to this day.

You have continued to do great miracles in Israel and all around the world.

You have made your name famous to this day.

You brought Israel out of Egypt and with mighty signs and wonders, with a strong hand and a powerful arm, and with overwhelming terror.

You gave the people of Israel this land so that They had the promise of their ancestors long ago, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Our ancestors came and conquered it and lived in it, but then they refused to obey you or follow your word.

They have not done anything you commanded.

That is why you have set this terrible disaster upon them.

But see how the siege ramps have been built against the city walls.

Through war, famine, and disease, the city has been handed over to the Babylonians who will conquer it.

Everything has happened just as you said.

Yet, sovereign Lord, you have told me to buy this field, even pay good money for it before these witnesses, even though the city will soon be handed to the Babylonians.

And now God is asking him to be faithful and to trust him when it seems like disaster is everywhere.

But when he got a vision that his God was bigger than all of this, then notice how his prayer begins to change as he goes along.

And so here's my idea for all of us, and that is that there will be moments in our life when difficulties will come.

But when we get an idea of how big God is, God will help us to see everything else clearly, the way Jeremiah saw it clearly.

So I want to show you three things in this passage that helps us to see more clearly when we see how big God is.

And so look at your neighbor and say, You need to hear this.

You need to hear this.

And look at somebody else and say, Because our God is strong.

No matter what we go through, our God is bigger than that.

He is all powerful.

Here's the first thing that Jeremiah reminded us is that when we go through difficulties, God's omnipotence reminds us that his power never runs out.

Somebody say, Amen.

His power never, ever, ever runs out.

No matter how many problems we have, he's got more possibilities in what he is able to do.

I love how remember he's in prison.

He's in prison because he was being faithful to God.

And the first thing he says is, Oh, sovereign Lord, capital L-O-R-D, means Yahweh.

Oh sovereign Yahweh, you have made the heavens and the earth by your strong hand and powerful arm.

Nothing is too hard for you.

You show unfailing love to thousands, and you are great and powerful God, the Lord Yahweh of heaven's armies.

The first thing that he reminds himself is he says, the reason why I am in this situation is not because God has lost any of his power.

I can trust his power when I don't necessarily always see what his hands are doing.

My first thing is to remind myself that God is bigger than anything else that I face.

One of the reasons why we need to remember that God is all-powerful is because sometimes our circumstances seem all-powerful.

And we have to realize that yes, our difficulties may be strong, but they're not as strong as what God is doing.

Here's some good news for him.

That is that Yahweh is all-powerful, which means he is so powerful that he can do everything equally as easily.

Nothing is too difficult for him.

Think about it for a moment.

Remember, I was telling you how we have our hands out and we try to create anything?

We can't, but God can.

The same God who created everything we see out of nothing, the same God that raised Jesus back to life, the same God that transforms the lives of millions all over the world is the same God that's with you right now.

It's the same God who says, I am more powerful.

That no matter what we face, it is not more powerful than creating something out of nothing.

It's not more powerful than Jesus being raised back to life.

That the reality of it is that God is stronger than any difficulty we face.

As a matter of fact, we will run out of problems before he will run out of power.

There's nothing that we can go through that God scratches his head and said, I better get some rest first.

I better make sure I take my vitamin B.

I gotta make sure this is this is a tough one.

He doesn't, he never has to roll up his sleeves, okay?

He's always able to do exceedingly and abundantly above.

And I think sometimes we forget that no matter how big our problem is, if nothing else, when we see a major problem, we need to remember, wow, God's even bigger than that.

God's always got more power than we have problems.

Here's an example of it, and that is that the Bible said that during Jesus' ministry, there was a time when there was around 5,000, thousands of people who were following Jesus.

And considering the average village was like a thousand people or less, this is a moving city going with Jesus as they're hearing him teach.

And as after they've been with him for about three days, everybody's running out of food.

And so that the disciples are wanting them to go home, go, go home so that you can go eat, mainly because they don't want to have to deal with this problem.

Because here's the thing there's not enough food.

It would be like if we said, hey, listen, you guys go eat, but then you don't have anything to go eat.

So like you would go to McDonald's, send a million people to McDonald's.

The first maybe thousand get to eat.

The rest of them, there's nothing left.

That's kind of the situation that was there.

And then what Jesus does is he actually, to show his power, he says, You give them something to eat.

No, I don't have anything.

And so then finally, I love this.

He asked the question, he said, What do you have?

And the only thing they had was Andrew said, Hey, we found this kid with five loaves of bread and two fish, and I'm pretty sure Peter can take him, so we could take this food and we could do it.

He they did say he didn't say they was gonna fight him, but he did say he had it.

Do you know how silly that is?

There's 5,000 people, but the trust they had in Jesus was to say, This is all I've got, but in your hands, I bet it'll be enough.

I think sometimes we we forget that God does not ask us to do the impossible, he just asked us to be faithful with what we have.

And so He they bring him five loaves and two fish.

And the Bible says that Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up to heaven, blessed them, and then breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples and distributed it to the people.

And look at this, they ate as much as they wanted.

It didn't matter if they came back for seconds, for thirds, for tenths, however much they wanted, they got it.

And then afterward, the disciples picked up 12 baskets of leftovers, which, and about 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children.

That means that if there were 5,000 like the canon family, that's 20,000 people that ate that day.

If it was the Durham family, it was 100,000, okay?

Love you.

All right, yes, absolutely.

But here's the thing: not only that, what I love about this is God didn't have enough power to feed everybody, he had enough power to feed everybody as much as they wanted, and then leftovers.

People were leaving there with leftovers like they were the grandma's house.

Like, listen, don't leave without just a little bit more.

They had all that they wanted.

Here's the amazing news that God is omnipotent, which means He can take, He can create the heavens and the earth, therefore, He can take care of us.

God's got more power than we have problems.

The the issue that we face is never that we serve a God that's not big enough.

It just may mean that he's doing something different.

But the reality is he's always got more power.

Look at your neighbor and say, My God is strong.

My God is strong.

You know why I know he's strong?

Because I see the evidence of him in creation, in the resurrection, in the transformation that I've seen.

And I realize that when everything seems to be going wrong, my God still has enough power without ever running out.

Here's the second thing that we see that Jeremiah teaches us is that when we go through difficulties, God's omnipotence reminds us his power is still available.

His power is still available.

This is actually a pretty theologically difficult idea because there are some people in the Christian world who think that as soon as the book of Revelation was finished, that all miracles, all things, everything ended.

Can I tell you, I'm not on that camp.

I think that nothing has changed between God's power in the end of the first century and today.

The only difference is do we believe that he can really do it?

Because sometimes you have to have where all God is all you have before you realize that he's all you need.

And then when you realize he's all you need, you begin to see the wonders of God all around you.

And that's what Jeremiah is doing is he's there and he feels like nobody else is on his team.

And he's reminding himself God's power never runs out, and he's still available.

He says this, you perform miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, things still remembered to this day.

So, in other words, he's remembering all the way back in Exodus 3.

He said, I remember when you revealed yourself again to Moses.

And then Moses came to us and he reminded us of who you were.

And then you did all the plagues, and you gave us manna in the desert, and you came down on Mount Sinai, you did all those things we still talk about.

And then he said, And you have continued to do great miracles in Israel and all around the world.

You have made your name famous to this day.

You have brought Israel out of Egypt with mighty signs and wonders and with a strong hand and a powerful arm.

And you gave the people of Israel the land that you had promised.

The amazing thing is that we remember that the promises that God fulfilled in the Bible are still available to us today.

Here's the amazing thing is that He is so powerful that the Bible is not just a collection of stories, it is a demonstration of what he can still do.

Do you know one of the reasons why I love reading through the stories of the Bible?

It's because it reminds me how powerful God is.

If God can rescue the nation of Israel, what can he do in our life?

If God can use David to slay a giant, what can he do in our life?

If God can use Peter and Paul and the disciples to spread the gospel over the known world, what can he do in our life?

The answer is whatever he wants.

God's power is available to us today.

That's actually one of the things that's so amazing about God's word is the apostle Paul in the book of Ephesus kept teaching them that the more we grow, the more we see the power of God.

And he says this in Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

He says, 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.

And 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 and the power that comes from God.

Because he, because all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within you, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

In other words, you think of God's power as a flowing river.

And the more we step into his power, the more we realize that it is still flowing, just like it did in the times of the Bible.

There's no difference between God's power then and God's power now.

Don't ever listen to anybody that says that God doesn't have the power to do exactly what he wants to do.

He is all powerful, he is all strong.

And when we begin to realize that God is not just a little bit better than us, he's not just a little bit bigger than our problems, but you can't even scale them.

He's so much greater and so much bigger that sometimes it feels silly to ask him because he's so much bigger than all of those things.

And he shows his omnipotence through creation, through the resurrection, and through the transformation that he does in all of our lives.

Therefore, when we go through difficulties, just like Jeremiah did, when he's doing his best, but it seems like everything's going wrong, in that moment, instead of saying, God, why?

Go, huh.

God, why?

I know you're big enough.

I know that your power never runs out.

You've got more power than I've got problems.

God, I'm curious as to why.

Because I know your power is still available today, and I know that I can trust you.

And then he has one more.

He teaches us that the power of God turns our journey into a testimony.

And we begin to truly see him for who he is.

Somebody say, My God is strong.

He is so strong that the more I see him for who he is, the more I can see everything else.

Remember, the most important thing that we believe is what we believe about God.

I believe that what we think about God tells us more about ourselves than anything else.

When we see that he is all powerful, he's not just a little bit better, but he is stronger than anything we can imagine.

And he shows it and how his power doesn't run out, and that he shows us with everything else that he does through our lives and how he's available today, and then how he's able to turn any difficulty into a testimony.

The Bible says it like this.

Jeremiah is talking about how big God is, but then he says, But wait a minute though.

How about these siege ramps that are built all around the city walls through war, famine, and disease, and the city had been handed over to the Babylonians who will conquer it.

You know, scholars tell us that they even released cats.

It was amazing, it was horrible.

That's a joke.

All right, yeah.

And oh sovereign Lord, you have now, on top of all of these difficulties, you've told me to buy a field.

And I even paid good money for it.

Even though the city will soon be handed over to the Babylonians, then this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

So in other words, he says, Remember, Jeremiah, remember, I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples, not just of Israel, but of the world.

Is there anything too hard for me?

In other words, after Jeremiah got through saying, Now listen, I am in prison in the palace because I was being faithful to you.

Then you told me to buy a field with really good money that I'm gonna lose, and you're telling me to do, you're telling me literally to kind of like shoot myself in the foot.

You're telling me to do that.

And he said, Can you trust me?

Can you trust me?

Can you trust me?

Let's get really real as we end the message.

Is this not true?

How many times do we find ourselves in the middle of a private battle and we feel like instead of getting out of it, God asks us to trust him in it?

If that's not you, can I tell you how many times it's been me?

When I have prayed and I knew that God could, I thought that he would, I knew he was able, and when it got down to it, God's asking me to be faithful in the fire rather than delivering me from the fire.

And then when I pray, I open up God's word, and basically he says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not into your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will guide your steps.

I close the Bible really fast.

I'm looking for the one that says, And God delivered them and then also gave them a raise.

That's what I'm looking for.

But then I go to another one that says, Though you may suffer, he will walk with you.

And stop that, stop that.

All right, I'm not looking for those, but that's the reality.

Can I tell you the good news is that he is so powerful that he can turn impossible situations into amazing opportunities.

If we can trust him.

And you know what's amazing?

Is God also doesn't mind when we say, God, I don't trust you as much as I want to, but as much as I can, I trust you.

God can work with that too.

He's not asking you to be perfect, he's just asking you to be faithful.

God, with what I have, I will trust you.

And then we read in God's word how he's so powerful that he can turn impossible situations into amazing opportunities to see his goodness.

We're gonna get to see that at the end of Exodus.

If you're reading God's word with us, we're about to finish up the book of Exodus, and you can join us by texting RLC Bible to 94,000.

And at the end of the book of Exodus, we get to see what God does with an impossible situation.

The nation of Israel had been rescued from Egyptian bondage, but now they're wandering in a wilderness for 40 years.

I don't like wandering for 40 minutes, but there are 40 years, and there are no McDonald's's.

There is no Longhorn, there is no Q doba, you're not getting takeout.

You're in the middle of a wilderness, and God just says, Follow me.

That's hard.

Can you trust me?

And he takes an impossible situation and he says, I'm gonna do a miracle that I can only do if you'll follow me, and that is I will create a pillar of cloud and follow me as I have that cloud.

And when it lifts, you follow me when it stays.

That's a miracle.

Well, only an impossible situation would create the opportunity for a miracle.

Look, the Bible says, whenever the cloud lifted from the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out on their journey and they would follow it.

But the cloud did not rise, they remained there until it lifted.

And the cloud of the Lord hovered over the tabernacle during the day, and at night it glowed inside the cloud so that the whole family of Israel could see it.

This continued throughout all their journeys.

God was so awesome that they didn't have to have a compass, they didn't have to have a map.

Because you know, if they had a map, somebody would have been asking Mo if they could see it for a minute.

It's been 40 years, Mo, I'm pretty sure you're lost.

They don't have to do that, just follow the cloud.

And God's so awesome that He even gave them a night light to say, in the at the night, don't worry, I don't leave and come back in the morning.

But in the darkest moment, I'm gonna shine the brightest.

Only in impossible situations do you get to see the most amazing miracles, and that's the power of God.

And that's what was amazing about the story of Jeremiah is God was so powerful that He's like, He's like, Can you trust me?

But but God, I'm in prison.

Can you trust me?

God, you asked me to buy this piece of land when the Babylonians are about to take it over.

Can you can you trust me?

Yes, sir.

I believe that your power doesn't run out.

I believe that you're available today, and I believe that even when I don't understand it, even when I don't see, that you're gonna turn this into something amazing.

Here's the end of the story.

The Bible said that not long after this, the Babylonians did break in.

They did overflow the banks, they did come in through and they slaughtered so many people.

But because Jeremiah was in prison, he was safe.

They actually didn't kill anybody in the prison because they thought they were probably there for a good reason.

And so while Jeremiah thought that he was in trouble, he was actually being protected.

And then when they let him out of prison, they said, Wait a minute, your name's Jeremiah.

You're the one that's been prophesying that if they didn't get their act together, we were gonna take them over.

Yeah.

You know what?

You're free.

Where do you want to go?

Well, I did just get through buying this land, it's yours.

Go have it.

So even though he was conquered, they gave him the land.

And so what it might have looked like that God was just setting him up for failure, actually, God was protecting him.

God was pretty was protecting his future and what he was doing, and God was showing that even if you don't see me, I'm doing more than you can imagine.

God is so big and God is so amazing that he can take whatever impossible situation you face and turn it into a miracle.

That's why, after the fact, when Jeremiah gets out of prison and he sees that he's got land, but he's looking around at the nation of Israel and he sees all of the horrible things that's been happening and they're gonna have to rebuild and all this stuff.

It's Jeremiah who has this amazing statement.

He says this, he said, I still dare to hope when I remember this that the faithful love of the Lord never ends, his mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness, his mercies begin afresh each morning.

The Lord is my inheritance.

I will hope in him.

Jeremiah, how can you hope in God when you see such devastation all around you?

You have no idea of my story.

I was, I thought I was in prison when really I was being protected.

I thought that I was giving away what little I had, only to realize God was setting up a future that I couldn't even imagine.

It's God's word that says all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his good purposes for them.

That we can be confident that he who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

It's God's word that says that he is our shepherd.

Because of him, we have all that we need.

He makes us lie down in green pastures, he leads us beside still waters, he restores our soul, he leads us along paths of righteousness for his name's sake, and even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid.

Why?

Because you walk close beside me.

Do you know when you walk through any valley, you're not walking alone, it's crowded.

You've got the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all walking with you.

You're never alone, you've got God beside you.

And if God is just a little bit bigger than your problems, then that doesn't mean much.

It leaves you feeling Nervous and worried and confused, and I don't know what I'm gonna do.

But when you realize how big God is, and just like that lady, there's a moment we just go, My goodness, He's awesome, He's huge, He's so much bigger than I can imagine.

You mean to tell me that the one who created the heavens and the earth out of nothing, that God loves me, the God that rose from the dead, the one who said, Kill me, and in three days I'll come back to life.

And then he said, Here I am, and I did it for you.

That one, the one that says, If you'll give me your life, I'll do something amazing with it.

I'll wash away all your sin.

I'll give you a home in heaven, I will walk with you, I'll talk with you, you'll never ever be alone.

That God says, I'm with you, I'm close beside you.

My power never runs out, you'll never have more problems than I have power.

I didn't just do those miracles yesterday, I did those miracles to show you what I can still do today.

And I can take any impossibility and do something amazing.

You can trust me, and so just like Jeremiah, we put our hope in him.

Here's something I know about all of us in here.

That is that all of us in here do have that private battle that nobody else knows about, except for Jesus.

Can I tell you he's not mad at you, he's not ashamed of you, he's not giving up on you.

As a matter of fact, it's when we walk through that dark valley, I think he leans in even more.

But for some of us, we need to raise our idea of who God is because when we see how big he is, how can I not trust him?

How can I not give him everything that I have?

I can't do anything with it, but God, look at you.

All things are possible for you.

And in just a moment, the band is going to give us an opportunity to maybe pray that prayer back to him.

In just a moment, they're gonna lead us in a song called Waymaker, how he makes a way out of no way.

As many problems as you have, as as many miracles as he's able to do, and maybe this is a moment for us to raise our level of who God is and say, God, you make a way out of no way.

If you can part the Red Sea and send the people on dry ground, what can you do with my family?

What can you do with my illness?

What can you do with my broken heart?

The answer is above and beyond anything we could ask, think, or imagine.

If we can but trust him with it.

In just a moment, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to maybe bring something like that to the Lord and trust him with it because he is powerful enough to handle it.

Maybe you're in here and you haven't given your life to Jesus.

Can I tell you that's what salvation is?

Salvation is when we confess our sins to God, we turn our lives over to him, we repent of our sin, let him wash away all that sin.

If that's you today, today is your day.

Inside your worship, God, on the back of that connect card is the plan of salvation.

It's a it's a prayer that says, God, I believe that you lived, you died, you rose again, Jesus, and because of that, my sins can be washed away.

And then when you give him your life, he gives you salvation.

It's the most amazing thing in the world.

Today's your day.

And in just a moment, as we stand to worship, your next best act of worship is to join us at the prayer table.

We would love to talk with you about what salvation is and and lead you through that prayer so you can experience the goodness of God for yourself.

But no matter how you found yourself in this place, realize no matter what you face, God is bigger, God is stronger, and He's available today.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.

Thank you, God, that you are with us and that you are for us.

God, you're not ashamed of us in here.

God, that you love us in this place, and that you are more powerful than any weight we carry, any question we have, any difficulty we're walking through.

Lord, your word says there are things that are impossible with man, but all things are possible with you.

There are so many ways that we can see your beauty, so many ways we can see how powerful you are through creation, through resurrection, through transformation, and a million more ways we can see, God, that you are omnipotent.

And you can do more with our lives than we can imagine.

God, I believe there's probably somebody in this place that they're carrying something heavy that is crushing them right now, God, that they don't know how they're gonna make it.

I pray, God, that they will get a fresh vision of who you are, a fresh trust in you, to know that there are things that are too heavy for us, but nothing is too heavy for you.

We can trust you with the deepest things in our soul.

And I pray that you'll help us to do that today.

God, I pray for somebody in this place today that today is a day of salvation for them.

Help them, Lord, to realize that all that sin, all that shame, all those things, that's exactly what you want.

You want to exchange all of that sin for the newness of life as they repent of their sin and they follow you, Jesus.

Today is their spiritual birthday.

Today, your word says that old things are gonna pass away, all things are gonna become new.

Thank you, Jesus, for the opportunity for new life.

Holy Spirit, lead us and direct us in all things.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Would you stand with me all over the house this morning?

The band is gonna lead us in a final song of worship, and I don't know exactly how you need to respond to the Lord.

Maybe you're going through something difficult and it's gotten so big that you've forgotten that God is greater.

In this moment, you can course correct that and say, God, I'm so sorry.

But I remember that you are all powerful.

And just fresh and new, I give you these things and ask you, God, to be powerful in my life.

Just give him that moment to do that.

Maybe you're in here and today's the day of salvation for you.

Please, as soon as we can start worshiping, we want to meet you at the prayer table.

We want to talk to you about salvation and lead you through that.

But also, if you're here and you need special prayer, the prayer table is not just for salvation, but it's for anything that we can do to pray with you about.

Maybe you just want to find a quiet place up here and just lay something down spiritually to the Lord.

But whatever you need to do, let's take the next few moments and just worship the Waymaker in this place today.