We Believe in the Power of God | Ps. Lindsey Brenner

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Good morning, good morning, good morning.

Happy Sunday church.

Are you guys doing well this morning?

If you're joining us online or here in person, welcome.

I'm excited for today's message.

It's actually been a while since I've been in this capacity on the platform with you guys because I went and had a third baby.

So becoming a mom of three had its um, you know, it's been stretching my capacity.

So haven't been here a lot, but it's great to be back.

If you don't know who I am, like I said, um, or I guess hope said, my name is Lindsay and I've been on staff here at Celebration for 16 years.

The last six of it has been here in Orlando.

Um, I helped lead the creative and communication arm, I guess, of the churches the church here, and I'm a wife and mom of three.

So actually, we're celebrating our 12th anniversary, wedding anniversary on Friday.

So it feels weird.

It's like, how did we get to 12 years?

I don't know.

It happened.

Um, but my husband told us, told me that we're going to um a I guess a Michelin star rated.

We're not fancy people, so I was like, okay, so he's like calling their place, finding out that resort casual is the entire I don't know what that means.

So if any of you guys know, I would love after the message, let me know.

So we're not rolling up in there.

Awkward.

But yeah, we're gonna be celebrating on Friday.

Um, and then we have three kids.

We have a four-year-old boy, a two and a half-year-old boy.

We finally got our girl.

She's eight months now, and she's super fun.

She is far surpassing all the milestones that my her brothers set, so go girl power.

Um, and I was pregnant with her last time, so yes, we've been busy.

So I'm excited.

We're in the series as we gather, and uh the last two weeks in the coming week, we've been talking about the the core values of our church here, celebration church, and um, these four different values, we've broken it down, and every week we've talked about one of them.

So, two weeks ago we had Pastor Vinny talking about the goodness of God.

Last week, Pastor Vinny spoke, um Pastor Nate spoke on engaging the presence of God.

This week I'll be talking about believing in the power of God, and next week, to culminate it all, we have Pastors Keith and Megan back on platform together preaching.

So make sure you guys come back.

Um it's gonna be a great Sunday together.

So I have a couple of goals, hopes for this message this morning, um, and I'd love to invite you to be a part of that goal.

Um, my hope is that this morning, whatever that thing is that you are worried the most about, caring the most about, feeling burdened on, that that thing that you're facing, we can take a moment, the next 30-something minutes, let's set it aside, and let's choose to put our eyes and our attention solely on God, his character, who he is, what he wants for us, and that that would, I believe, unlock some stuff for us.

That that would build some faith in us, that would build us some courage to face tomorrow.

So, are you guys with me in this goal?

Who needs more faith?

Who needs more courage for tomorrow?

I know I do, so that's our goal.

You ready to respond together?

I believe that as that as we strive for that goal, God has something to say and we will respond.

Amen.

Alright, let's pray.

God, we thank you so much for this beautiful church, this beautiful day, this time that you have allowed us to gather, to speak about who you are, and more than that, God, to experience who you are, God.

So we love you, God.

We give you this morning.

Have your way, build faith in our hearts this morning.

In your name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Okay, so I gave you a preview already, but the third value and the title of today is We Believe in the Power of God.

We believe in the power of God.

We're gonna be in our, the main passage first in Ephesians 1, which is in the New Testament.

So, whatever source of Bible you have, go ahead and start going to Ephesians 1, and it'll be on the screen.

Um, but while you're going to Ephesians, I'm going to give you a little bit of context on this letter that is written in Ephesians.

Um, it's a letter written by Paul, who many of you know.

Um, he is mentioned often in the New Testament, but he is one of the smartest men in the New Testament.

And what we see here in chapter one is he's using his best knowledge, his best Greek and logic to explain to the church of Ephesus something very complex, trying to help them understand and unpack that is the power of God.

Okay?

And so in Ephesians 1, jump down to verse 17, and we're gonna read the words he says.

He says to them, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but also the one to come.

And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

So, again, Paul, one of the smartest men in the New Testament, is here writing, trying to explain in his best attempt something that is so complex, which is the power of God, because I believe he knows so deeply the importance for the church, for the believer to fully grasp, believe, and engage it themselves.

And so, church, this morning, I believe that's our goal is that I deeply believe that we need to fully grasp, believe, and engage the power of God in our own lives.

For so many years, we've seen men and women alike all striving to understand more of who God is.

We see it through history in the Bible, people just wanting to know more about who God is, right?

And so the difficulty, however, is it's hard to ascribe logic and systems to God.

He is beyond that.

And in fact, the there's a Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, that says it is difficult to understand God with the head because he is wholly other, he is beyond.

And God needs to be understood in the heart.

In fact, that's what we see Paul write here in this letter.

He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened, which is a very confusing um conflict of thought.

Like that doesn't even make sense.

Um, in theology, the the goal of theology is to understand more of the nature of God.

But God is beyond studying his nature.

God wants to be felt, he wants to be lived, he wants to be obeyed and adored more than being understood.

And we we have this awesome opportunity through relationship with him and through the studying of his word to understand a little bit more of who he is and who he is not.

So I'm gonna list off a couple of things to help all make sure we're on the same page, okay?

So we'll start with who he is not.

God is not grumpy or detached, he's not sitting up on some throne in heaven just out there to judge mankind.

God is love and he is goodness.

God is not an energy out there just controlling the universe, he's a person and he is in control of all things.

God is not a religion, he is love, he is peace, he is joy, and God does not fit into any human doctrine, though sometimes we try to make him.

He is grace, he is intelligent, and he is creative.

He is indiscernible, unstoppable, infallible, intentional, indescribable.

God is three and he is one.

And God throughout the Bible, we see him reveal himself through many different names.

Still one God, but I believe these names, the intention of them is so that we can see the various facets of his personality through the various names.

So we know God to be God calling himself Jira, God of provision.

He is God, sorry, he is Rapha, God of healing.

He is Shalom, the God of peace, and one of the most important names we see in the Old Testament, thank you.

I've been trying to hydrate, not enough, apparently.

Um, and we see in the Old Testament the most important is El Shaddai.

God almighty, all powerful, omnipotent.

So from Genesis to Revelation, from Abraham to Paul, as we see here writing to the letter to the letter to the Ephesian church, we see that God is mighty, he is powerful.

And Paul's desire for the church here, and I believe the desire for our church today is to have a greater not only revelation of who God is, but of El Shaddai, the God full of power.

So, church, when we say we believe in the power of God, we are also saying we believe in the power of the Almighty.

We believe He is the Almighty.

So let me clarify a few things when we say power, because power in our current culture, we all oftentimes get confused.

We see we equate it to fame, success, things like that.

So let me help you kind of redirect your focus on what God and being all powerful powerful mean.

Let's start with what it doesn't mean, okay?

God, God, when we believe that God is almighty and he has all power, that does not mean that he will do what I want all the time.

It does not mean that he will miraculously act the way I prayed.

It also means that he will not do it in the timing that I think is perfect.

Because, yes, we've all experienced it, we know it.

He does what he wants.

Um, but because when we believe that he is almighty and has all power, we also believe that he is sovereign.

And sovereign means he knows all things, he is above all things.

And we believe that he is able to open doors and close them.

We believe that he can be obvious in his response to us, and we also believe he can be subtle and creative.

So that's this powerful God.

We believe he has the power to split the seas, we believe he has the power that will allow us to walk on top of them, and he also has the power, and I would argue it is still power, sometimes against our own understanding, to send us a different route.

So let's write this down because I believe this is a key for us this morning to take home.

Our job is to believe that he is powerful.

Our job is to believe that he is powerful.

His job is to use his power in a sovereign way.

Our job to believe in his power, his job to use his power in a sovereign way.

So the goal and the struggle here is that we don't put God in a box.

We don't get stuck there because we've all seen it, and it's probably been us at times that we get so frustrated with God because we're not receiving our miracle and things don't end up the way we expect them to be, and we end up disappointed.

Amen?

Anybody?

Um, and the fact that you didn't get what you want in the way you want it, in the time you want it, doesn't make God any less powerful.

It makes him more sovereign.

So if you serve God and get frustrated when you don't receive what you wanted, when you want it, how you want it, to the expect that you to the to the point that you are doubting God, that means the miracle has become your God.

The outcome has become the idol.

So once again, the encouragement: don't put God in a box.

Don't make the outcome your idol, because we believe he is powerful and sovereign above it all.

You guys with me still?

Okay, good.

I like talk back for sure.

So thank you for that.

Okay, so he's powerful.

We know that the Bible shows it, history reveals it, Paul's explaining it to the church in Ephesus.

Um, but when we look at our own lives, I'm gonna clear my throat again.

When we look at our own lives, we see something very vastly different.

We are not.

He is powerful, and we are not, right?

We are limited, we are corrupt, we are fragile, we are weak.

And let me read a couple of scriptures here to help um drive this point home.

In Psalms 8, 3 through 4, it says, When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them?

Human beings that you would care for them.

Second Corinthians 12, 9 through 10 says, But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

That is why for Christ's sakes, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses and insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Matthew 19, 26, Jesus looked at them and said, With man, this is possible, but with God, all things are possible.

So we believe He is powerful and we deeply know we are not, right?

We're limited and we don't have complete understanding of all things.

We don't know how to act sometimes, we don't have all the wisdom or all the answers, we don't know how to raise children.

We're trying, I'm for sure trying, but I don't know what I'm doing.

We don't know how to deal with a hard medical diagnosis that was unexpected and daunting.

We don't know how to fix our marriage when we it feels hopeless and hard.

Sometimes we just get lost and we don't know what to do.

And that's the beautiful dichotomy here, okay?

We have a God who is all powerful and he wants to have a relationship with us, limited and in spite of it.

And he invites us, that's this beautiful invitation here, he invites us to do so, to beautifully surrender and depend on him amidst our weaknesses.

You don't have to have all the answers, you don't have to have all the details, you don't know how to deal with the situation you're in right now.

You simply need to believe in a mighty God.

You need to receive the revelation revelation that he takes care of your impossible and rest in that realization despite the outcome when it's different, in spite of those moments.

And there's this beautiful passage in Mark chapter 9 where we see a father coming to Jesus on behalf of his son, and we see him asking Jesus to move in his son's life to heal him, and we hear Jesus say this to the Father.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

Verses 23 through 25.

Jesus said to him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief.

What an authentic response to Jesus.

He's being fully honest in this moment.

I believe, help my unbelief.

I'm dependent on you, I'm sacrificing, I'm literally laying it at your feet.

Help me in the midst of my unbelief.

And that I believe is what we need this morning.

We take our problems to him, our thoughts, our impossibilities that we're facing, and we know that he can handle them all, including the moments we're struggling with doubt.

Yes, we believe that all things are possible with him, and we ask God to help us with our unbelief.

So, really quickly, I know we've been doing um the testimony videos at the top of messages, but this is the moment where I want us to take this moment to hear from Valentina, one of the beautiful people that call our church home.

We want to hear her story.

So take a moment, lean in, and let's listen to what she has to say.

So one morning in 2020, I woke up, I put my feet on the floor, and there was a really weird ache in my feet that wasn't related to all the working out that I was doing.

And as the days went on, the ache went through my body and got so bad that one day in the middle of the night I woke up in excruciating pain, and I couldn't stand up.

I couldn't even walk.

I couldn't put the weight of my body on my feet.

So my husband Julian rushed me off to the ER where I went through a bunch of testing and they couldn't tell me what it was, but eventually I got diagnosed with an aggressive form of an autoimmune condition.

I saw doctors, they put me on all types of medicine.

The medicine took the edge off, but wasn't solving the root cause issue.

They asked me to go through all types of dietary and lifestyle changes.

I tried veganism, I tried anti-inflammatory diets, I even went carnivore, I did the full swing of dietary changes, and nothing was addressing the issue.

So, three years into this journey, one day I was at home talking to God like I always do, and I was just like, God, like this is still happening.

Why is this happening?

What is it that I need to do?

And I don't know if I don't know if it was God's voice or if it was a thought that I had.

But the thought that came to my head was, how dare you, child, not have given this to me already.

And I kind of felt crazy, and so I ran over to Julian, my husband, and I was like, I just had this thought, like I felt almost embarrassed that I hadn't thought to give it to God yet.

Of course, I had talked to him about it and asked him about it, but I hadn't given it to God, which is easier said than done, I feel like.

So I sat down that day out loud in my ra in my house, and I was like, God, I'm sorry I didn't think about this before, but I'm just gonna give this to you.

Like, I'm still gonna remain responsible and I'm still going to avoid the things that I know that make this worse.

But I'm gonna give it to you.

And I believe that you're gonna move.

And if you move, I promise that I'm gonna be annoying about it, and I'm gonna tell everybody that this was for you.

I'm gonna scream it from the mountaintops, is what I said.

So, Pastor Vinny scheduled me to sing and help lead worship on Sunday, June 11th, and he, of course, chose this song called Same God.

And in that song, it says, You are the same God, you are a healer then, you're a healer now.

And something about that morning on June 11th, I felt the Holy Spirit in both services.

And in the second service, I ended up crying on stage while I was singing those lyrics because it just all kind of culminated to me that like he was a healer then and he is going to be my healer now.

The next Monday, June 12th, I had to go to my regular doctor's appointments to review my blood work.

And when I sat down to see my physician, she said, Valentina, after three years of like leading you through this, I'm happy to tell you that your blood work came back to normal for the first time.

And I was, of course, shook, like, of course.

So I like ran to my car after, and I said, God, this is you.

And the only way that I could think of to shout it from the rooftops was through my Instagram story.

So I go on my Instagram story, and I just literally gave the glory to God and told my friends and my followers about it.

And that included people that may not have necessarily heard me talk like that about God before.

And I was pretty overwhelmed by the response of people saying, Thank you for your reminder, thank you for being authentic, for talking about this.

And of course, the next day, Pastor Lindsay calls me and says, Hey, do you wanna tell the whole church about this?

And I just found it laughable how God like really held me accountable to what I said to him, and here I am telling the whole church about it, and it feels kind of surreal, but I don't think we should be ashamed that we may not think to give thanks to God, even if it's three years later or longer.

And my strength and my faith is um fortified, and I know that the path might not be perfect moving forward, but I know that God hears me, and it kind of can be scary to shout it from the mountaintops, but God heard me, and it's my honor, it's my humble honor to tell everybody about that.

Incredible.

And what was happening behind the scenes as well, and something Valentina at the time was not aware of.

My Monday looked different than a lot of my Mondays do.

And I woke up this Monday morning ready to shift my focus of the week to preparing for this message today.

And as I was there kind of trying to line out the different things that I needed to carry, get done, accomplish, the schedule in our household, when I would have availability to do that, the reality began to make me crumble underneath it.

The weight of what was in front of me made me feel overwhelmed to the point that I felt paralyzed.

And I was trying to figure out what was going on.

I was not sure I'd never had this kind of experience to this point before.

And my natural response, in fact, a word I kept saying was, I this phrase I kept saying, I can't carry this, I can't carry this, I can't carry this.

So then what happened after the rest of the rest of Monday was me just trying to offload the things that I knew were too heavy for me.

And then Tuesday, um, come into work to record her testimony.

I'm in work mode, sitting down in the office.

I've talked to her down, like, okay, so you're gonna look at me, I'm off camera, and so she's staring at me in this video as she's retelling her story, and I know part of it, but I didn't know the full telling of it.

And so she's sharing it, and literally in the moment of her sharing, I have an encounter with God.

And he says through her, when she's sharing the words, child, how dare you not have not given it to me yet.

She says it, and it's like God is saying it to me.

And as she's continuing to share her story, I just break down.

I get overwhelmed with the fact that sometimes we could make things so complex, and and God in his graciousness is using this beautiful moment that I'm in work mode.

I'm trying to task, like get things checked off.

And he's saying, No, I want to speak to you.

I want to remind you to depend on me.

I want to get your focus on me and off of the things that you're considering too heavy for you.

And so what then happened after that was me surrendering, me just saying, Okay, God, my week doesn't look any different.

The things that are heavy in my life right now are still heavy, but I'm gonna give it to you.

And I believe that through this, you're showing me something that you want to show others.

We can say the words, we believe in the power of God, and it sounds all great, and then we go home, and then we have to put it into practice, and it is very hard.

And God is saying, just give it to me.

And so we believe that he's powerful, but I believe the key sometimes in our walk with him is believing the power of testimony, and the way her testimony shifted the trajectory of my week from her being obedient and opening up her mouth and telling me what she's going through, helped give me a little bit more faith to walk into the next day.

Our story can be a conduit for him, for others to see his power, believe it again, remind us again of it, and to stop focusing on our own limitations.

And so I believe this morning that God wants to allow for a moment for him to speak to you.

Like that moment happened.

I was distracted and he spoke in spite of it.

I'm going to create a space that my encouragement to you is just listening to him.

It's not the normal ending to things, and that's okay.

We're just gonna create a quick moment and we're gonna respond.

And I believe he's gonna say something, speak to you.

He's gonna move in this time.

Thanks again for listening.

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