June 22, 2025 Rooted Wk. 9 - Dwell Richly, Live Openly (Colossians 3:16)

June 8, 2025 Rooted Wk. 7

00:00:08 Speaker: So we've been looking and studying through, uh, can you turn this down just a little bit? Be. Studying through, um, strongholds so that we we may understand what strongholds are, but we want to equip ourselves now with truth so we can, uh, fight like Jesus later. We know that Christ, when he was tempted, he fought back with, uh, with Scripture and truth. Um, and so today we are looking at a passage, um, that we're just going to dive into it and we'll probably end up coming back to it, But one of the things that something was said in the last couple of weeks, I've talked to multiple different people. Um, and it got me thinking. Have you ever been in a trial, like in your life and you started to question God? Say why? You know what? Why is this thing? Why? Why is it, you know, why did you allow this? Or why is this happening? Why does this thing not leave me? Whatever it is, whether it's a a health thing, a family thing, maybe it's your child, your husband, your wife. Like all these things, we we we come up with these questions and we start to question God. And then, um, I talked to multiple people in the last several weeks, and there was almost like a guilt for questioning God. And so I'm curious. Has anyone ever questioned God? Let's be real. Come on right now. Has that ever gotten. And almost to the point of where, um, the next level of that was like, well, am I a believer if I question God? Have you ever struggled with that? Right. You struggle through that. Like where? Where? Okay. So so what we want to look at today, there's there's several passages and different people in the Bible that God calls men of faith. Women of faith. Um, and God used them greatly, but yet they question God. Um. Um, and so, so today we're going to focus in just on one, we're going to talk about Paul. And we're going to focus in on this, this idea of, uh, the struggle. And really what when we talk about strongholds and how these are fortresses, these are things that create belief systems that create lies. So some lies and this is kind of a broad, a broad stronghold, which comes with a lot of lies that we might believe. Maybe it's I need to be understood. If only. Uh, there's there's many of these symptoms that we believe that you know, that, uh, if I question if I question God, therefore I must I must not really have much faith, uh, that he is angry with me if I question him. These are different lies that we might believe. Uh, and the stronghold, then it's kind of broad as well. But the stronghold might be something like life would be better if I had control. Life would be better if I had control. We get this anxiety when when things don't seem to be going like we think they should. And and we get this, we get this anxiety or this angst within us. And it keeps you up at night, makes your mind race. You wonder, does God really love me? If God really loved me, would this be happening to me? And you have other things in your life that bring these questions down, right? These, uh, these questions of like, why is this long term thing? Why is this long term problem in my life, this weakness in my life? Why are you allowing it? God, if you if you really loved me, then you would heal my back. If you really loved me, you would help me with this cancer. If you really loved me, you would help. DUT dut dut dut dut. You fill in the blank, right? We we have those things, and those are natural. We. We are made in God's image, right? You and I were made in God's image. Jesus, even on earth before he were. He was to go into the Passion Week where he gave his life willingly for us. He had a conversation with his father. He's like, if it's possible, if it's possible for this cup, this, this, this thing that I'm about to have to go through, if it's possible, if there's any other way, if there's any other way that I can possibly that we can we can do this and, and provide forgiveness for mankind. If it's possible to have this thing pass through me, When the response then was. But nevertheless, it's it's not my will, it's yours. It was this, this posture of submission. And we have another example. Paul. Paul writes to the church at Corinth. We've been talking about this quite a bit. The church at Corinth. Um, we can probably relate to. It's kind of like the American church, uh, that allowed a lot of worldliness in a lot of wrong thinking. And, and this particular thing that he was dealing with. There's there are many things that that Paul dealt with the church. But one of the things that they pointed out, this area in his life that was, um, I think like a stress point. It was it was something where they they pointed out some things and they they were essentially they had these guys coming in to the church and they were trying to say, well, you know, Paul writes really well, but when you see him speak, when you see Paul speak, he's, uh, he's not that great. Um, sorry. It's second Corinthians 12 six through ten. My bad. Sorry. This is back there. Like this isn't a. Yeah, sorry. We're in second Corinthians chapter ten. Uh, in chapter 12, 6 to 10. And so. So Paul is sitting here, and he is he he's he talks about it earlier like these these guys, you've you've hoisted up these people who are great at speaking. They're great car salesmen. Right. You've you've met used car salesmen before, right. And they're slick. They know how to talk. They know how to read you and exactly what you want to hear. And they're really good at it. Not that car salesmen are wrong or bad. Um. But what was going on in this church here is that these guys were good at speaking, but yet they were teaching contrary to what God had said. And Paul is saying, look, you you're saying that I'm weak when I'm there and you're pointing out the obvious. And then Paul gets into this, this verse here. And he's telling them, look. For if I want to boast, I wouldn't be a fool. Because I would be telling the truth. So he's now trying to list his credibility. He's trying to to explain to the the people here his credibility and why Christ chose him to do what he's doing because, again, even in the early church, the Satan was trying to get in, trying to disrupt what God was trying to do. And so for if I would boast, I wouldn't. I wouldn't be a fool because I would be telling the truth. But I will spare you so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me, especially because of the extraordinary revelations. What Paul is talking about here is God. God spoke to him and he showed him things that no one, no one else did. And so, so then he, he he lays out here. Verse seven, especially because of the extraordinary revelations, therefore, so that I would not exalt myself. A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan, to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. So God gave Paul this thorn in the flesh. There are tons of books out there. Theologians have talked about it. They say from eyesight to all kinds of ideas. I think God is purposeful and not telling us exactly what that thorn in the flesh was. But there was an area of weakness that he showed, and he was reminded of it every day. He was reminded of it. And and this is what's interesting here is that he actually went and he talked to Jesus, and Jesus actually responded. Which is which is interesting all of itself. But but we see here the messenger of Satan or an angel of Satan. Basically, this messenger is come to torment me. Very similar to the the troubles that job went through in the Old Testament. Right? Remember job went through the Old Testament. Satan, uh, said, of course, you know, he he would come back and forth from the earth and he would say, hey, this guy job here, God would say, what this, this guy job here, he he loves me. He's following after me. And and Satan's like, well, yeah, he's following after me. Because everything you've done for him, he's got, he's got all the money, he's got all the stuff. If you take that all away, then he's probably not going to be really genuine. And God allowed it. And so, so all these trials that went in job's life and something similar here, now that Paul is recognizing, he says that this thing has been tormenting me. He said. I pleaded with the Lord three times. So I talked to Jesus three times about this. Do we know if it happened at once? One conversation or was it multiple times? We don't really know. Based on the words that are used here. And he asked if it would leave him. He wanted this. And so he was actually going to sing to God and questioning, why? Why have you allowed this thing in my life? Why? Why have you let this thing in my life? Because if it weren't there, then I could be more effective for you. God, you could use this in a bigger way. And this is the response that Jesus gave. But he said to me. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power. Is perfected or shown in weakness. Jesus tells Paul. My my grace is going to show up all the more through this weakness. You see it as a weakness. You see it as a weakness. But I see this as an opportunity for my power to shine through you. And this word here, that that Paul uses a lot over 100 times in his letters, this word grace. What's the general definition when you when you hear of God's grace? What do you what do you think of? God through Jesus Christ. Right. God's riches at Christ's expense. So we think of grace as in that way, right? Um, but this word that, that the that the community would know and their context. It's this thing, um, um, favor or showing favor, showing kindness, showing, doing something for somebody else. So it'd be like, okay, Zach is going to be out of town for a week to go pick up Clarissa. So he asked James, hey, James, is it possible for you to come over and mow my lawn? Uh, I'm going to be gone this week. And so James is like, yeah, I'll do that. And I'll I'll mow the lawn And no big deal. Now, when Zach comes back, what is what is our typical response as Zach is going to have? What does he think he's going to need to do to James besides thank him, right. Thank him. Pay him or what? Return the favor. Right. Return the favor. And it's kind of understood. Like, if I'm doing this for you, then you should do this for me. That and that was well known in this world in which Paul is writing. So when when you hear Paul talk about grace all the time, then you, you would realize that that they understood that if I do something for you, then I expect it in return. And that was the culture. But with Jesus now this is completely different Because he's saying that my grace is sufficient and my grace when he uses this word here. Now, this is everything on me, and I'm expecting nothing in return from you. God doesn't expect anything from you. That's religion, right? If Paul thinks that. Oh, I have to come to church in order to. For God to love me. Now, does God want Paul in church? Yes, obviously. But is it is it something that you can do to please God? No. It has everything to do with God already doing it. His grace has already been shown to us. So he says, my grace is sufficient for you, and my power is perfected. My my power, my the the word we get like the dynamite from like my who I am is shown actually through you. Which sounds crazy to the world, right? The world that they say. Oh, the fact that you're flawed actually shows that God is stronger. It doesn't make any sense to us, right? That your weakness could possibly show God that God would, uh, be able to put himself on display. Because look at the next verse here. Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses now that Jesus has told me that. Okay, I asked him three times. I'm done asking. I don't know why he didn't necessarily have to explain it to me. All he told me was, look, this is a state in which you are. I'm going to show myself strong through this trial. Get over it and I'm going to worship you through it. We want to argue with God, and many men and women have done that, and it's not going to send you to hell to argue with God. But it's a conversation that you and I have with God, and we eventually must come to the point where Jesus did and say, it's not about my will, but it's your will. I don't have to understand you, God. Job went through all of that and he started lecturing God. And God said, were you? He just went. He went to it. He's like, were you there when I created the world? Were you there when I did this? Were you there? Are you the one that creates that big, giant, uh, dinosaur that moves his tail around? Were you there for that? No. You weren't. So I don't have to answer to you. We don't have to have that point where job was. But our weaknesses are an opportunity for God to show up. I know my brother Frank would love to go back to pre stroke day. If he could pay anything, do anything, he would love to go back there. Right, Frank. But God for whatever reason has not chosen to do that. And so now God gets a show and and go on display through Frank's weakness. You have this trial. You have this thing that you just like. God, please take this from me and maybe he will. There's nothing wrong with praying. There's nothing wrong with being persistent in prayer. But you go to God and you pray and say, God, if it's possible, please let this thing just just take this thing from me. But I want you to show yourself through this, and this is the most amazing thing here. And then we'll close because it's so powerful. Therefore, I most gladly boast all the more in my weaknesses. Now he goes from one weakness. He's like, okay, it's not just the one weakness that I really wanted gone. Now it's all of them. Now it's my my, my, uh, my humanness. Right? My humanity now, my fleshliness, my weakness. Okay. God, you know what? Fine. All of it. All of my weaknesses. You have them. I submit them to you. I'm going to stop trying to change them in my own control. But I'm going to submit to you and say, okay, God, I think I should be this. I think this should be this. But ultimately, you are in control so that Christ's power may reside in me. Now, this word right here, remember the Old Testament, the tabernacle. Was the tabernacle any kind of answer? What was what was the tabernacle used for? It was a tent. What's that? Yeah, it was like the church, right? So? So God's presence would come and reside on that, right? And once a year, he would he would come and he would, uh, Zach would or Dusty or James or Ben would bring an offering, a sacrifice and shed that blood for his family. And, and God would come down in the holy and the holy priest or excuse me, the high priest would come in and he would bring that sacrifice on behalf of everyone, and God's presence would come down. So now in the New Testament, because of the cross, because the curtain was torn in two, there is no more holy of Holies. You actually have. Now, this is kind of weird to think about, but it's mind blowing to think about. God's presence doesn't come into the Holy of Holies, but he literally resides over you and resides over me. Isn't that powerful? That the tabernacle literally is residing over you and over me. And he wants to be able to show his power, not you. He's actually going to take your weakness or your your lack of faith, your exhaustion. He's going to use all of that. Your question. He's going to use all of that and say, you know what? Even in this weakness, I am going to show who you are to the world, because in my weakness, God's power is going to be shown not just one weakness, but all so that Christ's power may reside in me. So I take pleasure now in my weaknesses and the insults, the hardships, the persecutions and the difficulties. Because it's for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then you are made strong. Then kind of touched on this a little bit earlier about do you want to be around someone who walks around like they got a something shoved up their behind and just sad and like, always grumpy? Or do you want to be around someone who knows God's in control and living a life of joy, not of perfection? Not that they got it all figured out, but just someone who has come to the point where they realize, God, you know what? I can't change any of this. If I did, I would. I would love to. But for whatever reason, you have chosen to use my stinking weaknesses to show yourself strong. So I am going to submit to that, and I am just going to depend on you for everything. So the thing that hit me this week was this. Anything that I can do by myself is a weakness. Anything that I can do in and of myself is actually really a weakness. Because the reality is I need to be praying about God of everything for everything. When Christina was going through her cancer. We prayed a lot. She prayed a lot. She made me pray a lot with her. We prayed all the time. And she is much, much better at praying than I am. She'll bring up. I'll say something about something that was overwhelming. And she's like, well, have you prayed about it? Have you prayed about it? Have you prayed about it? Have you prayed about it? And so often that's for guys, right? That's our last thing we do. We only go to God when we think we're weak. But the reality is, if I think that I can do anything in of myself, that's a weakness. And it's wrong way to live. I have to wake up and breathe. Everything is dependent on him. You woke up today. Your lungs are working today. Not because you did it, but because God did it. Frank's synapses are going in his brain right now. Not because Frank's doing it. Because God's doing it. Larry's eyeballs are working right now. Looking this way only because God did it. And like Zach said, he just needed spit and dirt because he did everything else. In our weaknesses, God is made strong and he literally resides over us. And that power is wanted. He wants to show it through you and through me. So suck it up, Nancy. We are weak. We cannot do anything of ourselves. Let's let God actually show himself strong through us, because then we're not patting ourselves on the back. Paul wasn't Pat. If he started out, he's like, I could pat myself on the back if anybody else I could. But God is keeping me humble and my weaknesses are right there in front of me, and they're right in front of you as well. Jesus, I pray today that we would realize that anything that we think we can do by ourselves is truly a weakness in your in your sight. You want to be able to show your power. You want to be able to put yourself on display like you did when Moses came off the mount and they had to put a veil over his face. You want to show your power like that? Oh, God. If we could possibly get to the point where we are not ashamed of our weaknesses, but own them as from you. That's what you could do through and through us in this body of believers. We pray for our community that they would see not us, but they would see our weaknesses made strong and your power emanating from our weakness. So, Jesus, I pray that you would get honor and glory. I pray for my brothers and sisters today who came in heavy, heavy, heavy. I thank you one God last week compared to this week with Jake. Amazing what you did. You showed yourself real and Gretchen's life and her girl's life and Jake's life. It was all of you coordinating everything with. With Christian being able to get into Mayo this quickly. You showed yourself strong and powerful. You are exuding yourself through our weakness, with Zach and Clarissa and Gemma coordinating everything to get down to. Indiana and just all the things you're doing. What you did with with little Jack a few months ago when dusty felt so utterly helpless. And you showed your power through his weakness. You, you you put yourself on display for the world to see and for us to see. God, I pray that we would not be so ignorant and so prideful, but that we would see these opportunities for you to show your strength. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. So today we have our first taco bar. Sunday. If you are here, we would love for you to stay. We have a mess load of food up because big guys can't help themselves. We always have lots of food. Um, but before we dismiss, actually, I would like to. We have one more. Uh, brother and sister, we want to pray for real quick. Uh, specifically for Christian and Lucy. Lucy is, I believe, from what I just kind of gathered from her. She kind of just takes on the world and she's weighed down. And so we need to lift her up in prayer. Uh, so we need to pray for Lucy because she's driving, uh, Christian all the way to Mayo today. Uh, they're in transit right now. And then Christian is, as Leah pointed out earlier, um, is doing better. I visited with him yesterday. Um, he's very grateful for his family. Uh, but just would like. And just looking for answers and to see what's going on. He had an issue on Easter. Um, at first they thought it was an allergic reaction. Now it's something to do with his esophagus or something. So they're they're just looking for answers. They're going to do all kinds of tests. Um, so we need to pray specifically for his nerves and that just God would show himself strong. He got a new Bible and he's excited about that. So, um, if we could just spend a few minutes here, pray as God leads you, and then, um, Ben, if you close us out and also pray for our food. Jesus, I thank you for Christian. And I thank you for Lucy. God. Specifically, I think of our sister Lucy that you would show yourself strong. Um, she is, uh, so sweet and so kind and takes on the world and is a loving. Just a a loving. Um, many times, I think, probably takes on too much and puts herself, uh, in situations where it's too much for her, but that's just her loving nature. She's gracious God. I pray that you would show up in a big, big way for her and Dan and that you would show yourself strong. Give her the energy. We thank you for her. We thank you for her. Just her sweet disposition and her love for you, her love for people, her love for her family and God. I pray for Christian. I thank you for what you're doing. This is an area of weakness that he doesn't know the answers to. And you can show yourself strong. So, God, I pray that you would help him see your power and strength through all of this. We ask this in your name, Jesus. Father, we just pray that Lucy will sense your presence with her as she drives me to keep her safe. I pray that they may have good fellowship together. Yeah. And Lord, as she gets down to Rochester, I pray that it will not be overwhelming, but that she will find a parking and she'll find help. And she will not have any problem getting around in the hospital area. We pray for your peace to be given. Father to Christian, that he will trust you and that you will accomplish what is best for him. Thank you Jesus. Heavenly father, we just praise you this morning. Um, I just thank you so much for this faith family. That is so rich. And we come together and lift one another up earnestly in prayer. And we come before the throne on behalf of one another. And, Lord, I just praise you for ways in which you have orchestrated and you have shown your power. But like we recognize and remember today, your power is shown when we step back and surrender And it should be. So yes, there are times we don't understand. But Lord, I thank you because the enemy intends for despair. And you will show your glory. And our prayer and our prayers and family has been. You will be glorified in all things. And so every mile, every worry, every concern. Lord, we lay it at your feet. We just prayed that, um, on the other side of this, we will have so much praise and so much victory share because you're going before them. You're going alongside them. Lord, thank you so much. And just may everybody be blessed and encouraged through your answers to prayer. Lord, we thank you. Thank you. Jesus. I pray for mercy. I pray, Lord, that you would just give us strength physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. She cares a lot. She juggles a lot of things like your mom and your wife, daughter, sister, business. You know, just a lot of things. Lord, I just pray that you just make yourself very real to her. Mm. Um, and I pray also for Christian that you would allow him to claim a Bible verse to, um, calm his heart and his mind as he goes through testing and, um, for different things that you are going to ask him and just pray that you would just help him to, um, get stronger in his walk with you because of this and, um, and that you would give him a safe place to travel Travelling now and thinking that you will be able to get in so quickly to the bathroom. And we thank you, father, for also what you're going to do as they travel and as they begin to morrow morning. Mayo Clinic give the doctors wisdom. And also, Lord, we we are praying for Grant again. Um, who was in this motorcycle accident? And, uh, Lord needs our prayers. Um, and we, uh, we just pray, father, for your healing touch upon him and comfort to the family also. And, uh, Lord, um, as we gather together to fellowship, uh, around the table, um, this morning, uh, and, uh, Enjoying a meal together. We just pray that there would be no wonder who would want to, um, not stay because they didn't bring something along with it. But Lord, that you would encourage us all, uh, whoever can, uh, to be able to enjoy that fellowship. We thank you for the food and give us strength from it. And, Lord, uh, as we go. Help us to meditate on what pastor is talking about, because we are all weak, and we need you, and we need one another. Yeah. Teach us, Lord, to quit crawling on our bellies and learn to fly like a butterfly in your presence. While we draw your Holy Spirit's power within our weakness. For Jesus sake. Amen. Amen. Amen.