My God is Able | Pastor Edward MacDonald

Welcome to the First Apostolic Church Podcast.

Our church mission is to love as God loves, showing compassion

every soul, thus winning those souls and equipping them to be

sent out to plant and to harvest.

Thank you for joining us today and we hope that you're blessed

by today's podcast. Good.

Welcome. This morning he comes and

ministers the word of the Lord. Amen.

To us today. Can we stand and give God praise

Amen and admire his holy name as he comes this morning?

Hallelujah, we're so thanked. Amen.

God is so good, Such a great opportunity to be here today.

I I am. I was trying to decide.

Do you say humble or humbled? I didn't want to be humiliated.

That's that's that's just a thing.

And so I just sorry. He told me to be at home.

So I tell the church at home said I have a word from God or

you're just going to be part of my brain.

In which case, we're going for a ride.

But, but I want to say thank you for the Mcgee's for this

opportunity, for this invitation.

I take this opportunity to thank him.

I am deeply honored and humbled to be here and share the word

with you today. I'm praying, even even this

morning I was praying. Oh, you have a clock back there.

That's fantastic. I didn't say sorry.

Squirrel trying to. Trying to focus, trying to

focus. But I just was praying for our

church this morning. Brother Kirk is preaching this

morning. So you know, we got to pray

extra hard. But no, God is so good.

Maybe we need to pray again. But thank you for this

opportunity to be here. Thank you, Sister McGee.

Thank you, Brother McGee. A great man of God.

Great speaker and we I'm always reminded every time I think of

Brother McGee, I'm reminded of the time we were at camp.

And I think it was the first or second time that he was out for

our camp meeting and we had had about two and a half hour prayer

meeting during song service. So it was just it wasn't after

the preaching. It was before the preaching.

And for the curt comes to me, What should we do?

What should we do? You know, should we not have

preaching? It's like when you have a great

prayer meeting before the preaching.

It means somebody was hard and needed to be tilled up a little

extra. So plant the seed.

Go ahead and plant the. My pastor's idea, that's my

idea. That's plant the seed.

So Brother McGee gets up and says, all right, you asked for

it and he preached and then we had another hour and a half per

meeting. So that was, that's what we

consider to be a great camp. And I'm thankful for this

opportunity to be here, be with Brother McGee, great family.

And yes, we're more than family. When you're with the prison,

family is the brother, as you've learned.

It's a unique family and the group, group of people.

And we don't look like what we've been through.

And we don't look like it because we have an understanding

that when God calls us, when the enemy calls us, He calls us by

our sin, by who we were, by what we were.

But when God calls us, He calls us, as He sees us.

And he sees us as blood bought children of the king.

So he calls us as different. It's different to have your sins

washed away. And we said, OK, I'll stop, but

God is so good. God has been so good.

His blessings upon us. And I'd like to turn our

attention to 1st Kings 20 and 28.

And there came a man of God, and he's spoken to the king of God,

the king of Israel, and said, Thus sayeth the Lord, because

the Syrians have said, the Lord is God of the hills, but he is

not God of the valleys. Therefore I will deliver all

this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know.

That I am God. That I am the Lord like to speak

for just a few moments here this morning on my God is able, my

God is able. Could we lift our hands and just

praise him for just for a moment here, Lord Jesus, we thank you.

For your goodness to us, We thank you, Lord Jesus, for your

blessings. Lord Jesus, we pray right now

that you would help us, Lord, open our minds.

Open our hearts to what you have to say to us here today.

Jesus, we need you, Lord. We need you, Lord Jesus, in this

house. Open our minds and our hearts to

you. Lord Jesus, we thank You, Lord,

for all your goodness, Your mercy.

Jesus, pray over this place. Our minds and hearts be open to

you. Jesus help us, Lord Jesus,

anoint my lips, anoint my to see your word to your people.

In Jesus name we pray And everyone said, Amen, Amen.

And you may be seated. You see.

The king had said is God of the mountain.

How often do we put God in a box?

We put parameters on him and we say, well God can do this but he

can't do that. God can do this but he can

deliver. But you know and but then we

say, OK, this this is for brother so and so.

This is for sister so and so this is for this person or that

person. And we put a disclaimer on God,

say God, you can do this, but that's not really for me.

And we put parameters on God. And God is saying here to

Israel, I'm God of the mountain and I'm God of the valley.

God is All in all. God is All in all.

If we'll let him be, You see, God will not cross the line, and

that's called the human will. We're not robots.

We're not. We're not to say, OK, God didn't

say, this is you. You go, we have human will.

God's not going to cross it. We say, well, I want to go out

and do whatever well, and God will let us.

But oh, how sweet it is. I've, I've heard more than once

since I've been here about the prayer meeting Thursday night,

how sweet it is to be in the presence of God, to understand

that God is there with us. We went into the prison and God

was with us. I I, I find it interesting every

time we go in that first day. We're we're kind of looking at

them and they're kind of looking at us trying to figure out, you

know trying to weigh this out trying to figure out what's

going on. But by the last day they're

always fully engaged. God is always on the move.

God is always that you can see, you can physically see the lives

changed, you know and and people come into our church and you can

physically see we we traveled. We traveled to the Philippines

some years ago, and in the Philippines it is.

I would have to say it's probably one of the toughest

places to get the Holy Ghost just because they're praying for

30 minutes and there's like four or five people gathered around

this person praying for them, and everybody has to agree that

that's the Holy Ghost. And then the pastor has to come

over and verify. So this person may be speaking

in tongues, There's pouring down and they're, they may be

speaking in tongues for, like, forever.

It's like I can see them that their their countenance has

changed. They've got the Holy Ghost.

They got the Holy Ghost 35 minutes ago, but they're still

praying for him. Until the pastor verifies, well,

there's multiple languages in the Philippines.

They don't want people faking it, so that makes sense.

But you can see the countenance change.

Why? Because when the presence of God

becomes a part of you, your countenance should change.

You don't walk the way you used to walk.

You don't talk the way you used to talk.

You don't. You're not the person you used

to be. Why?

How is that possible? Because you're leaning on the

presence of God. Because you have found out that

God is God of the valley. God is God of the mountain.

And God is in your life and He's changing you every day, in every

way. He's changing you to be more

like him if you'll let him. If you'll let him, it's your

will. Often times we get into our

stinking thinking. We get into our own brain

saying, well, God. God can change this part of my

life, but he can't change that part.

God can move in this part of my life, but God really not so

sure. This part is a little hard.

This part is a little tough. I'm not so sure.

There used to be a song we used to sing.

Have a little talk with Jesus. Tell them all about our

problems. Tell them all about our

troubles. But you see, you can tell them

about your troubles. You can tell them about your

good times. You can tell them about anything

going on in your life. All you have to do is lean on

him. Time and prayer is so important.

Time of prayer, time of communion with God saying, Lord,

I just want more of you. I just want more of you.

See, often times we wonder about our future, some things that we

believe that are impossible. But if we go beyond what's what

we feel that is impossible. That's where miracles happen.

God's willing to do the miraculous and He is able.

If we'll let him. Often times we wonder about our

future. We wonder how our how our life

as children, We wonder how our lives will turn out There.

There was a time in my life we were talking about.

I was. I was.

When I was in high school, I was powerlifting.

It's a long time ago I was into powerlifting and my my goal in

life. At that point in my life, I

could pass the PT test to get out of the Marine Corps a junior

year in high school when the track coach is mad at you

because your body fat, like I said a long time ago, but but

your body fat is less than the track coaches.

And so yeah, I was ready to go. I was ready to do this.

But then Jesus. It's amazing how when God gets a

hold of your life, you say, Lord, I can't do that.

I could never do that. I could never be a pastor.

Lord, I don't even want to be a pastor.

You have to deal with. You have to people, Lord, I

don't people. I don't even like public

speaking. Lord, I don't like it.

I don't want to do it. I don't want to be a preacher.

I don't want to be a pastor. I'll go to the Marine Corps.

I can run around with the guys, God said.

Now you go to Bible school like, Lord, I don't want to go to

Bible school. There's a bunch of Bible

thumpers there. Hello.

What do you think? I don't want to go.

I don't want to do it. I said, but you can do it.

And you come to an understanding that no matter what phase of

life you're in, no matter what's going on in your life, God is

able. God will meet you there.

You say, Lord, I don't have the strength for this, He'll meet

you there, he said, Lord, I don't think, I don't think I can

do this. He says good because if you

can't do it. You'll give him the credit.

You'll give him the credit. That Lord has kept me.

The Lord has blessed me. The Lord is with me.

He's God of my mountains. He's God of my valleys.

He's God no matter where I'm at in my life.

He's my God. He's my Lord and my God.

When we turn to Daniel 6 and 19, one of my favorite Bible

stories. He says, And when he came to the

den, he cried with a lamentable voice to Daniel.

And the king spake and said to Daniel.

Daniel, serving the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest

continually able to deliver thee from the lions.

You see, it wasn't the King's God, he said.

Thy God, yours, yours. Then Daniel said, in the King, O

king, live forever. My God has sent his angels and

has shut the lion's mouth, and they have not hurt me for as

much as before him. Innocency was found in me, and

also before the O King, have I done no hurt.

You see, the king said. You're God, Daniel was saying.

My God. When it becomes that personal

relationship, when it becomes that personal relationship, we

come to an understanding. It's my God.

My God can deliver me. My God can go before me.

My God goes behind me. My God goes around me.

My God is with me. No matter what I'm at in life,

no matter what's going on in my life or where I'm at, my God

will deliver me. You see the enemy of our soul.

First, Peter tells us that the enemy of our soul is as a

roaring lion. When you think of a lion, you

hear that roar, and it's supposed to put fear in.

You supposed to put fear. And he's trying to swallow your

testimony, trying to trap and mislead you temp and mislead,

but God always knows, already knows how to shut that lion's

mouth. He's done it before.

It's no new thing to him. This is not something when when

the when you go through a temptation, God's not saying,

oh, what are we going to do when you go through a trial?

God said, oh, what are we going to do?

What are we going to do? Well, I'm not sure what to do

about this. Someone told me one time there's

no new thing under the sun and that's fact, there's no new

thing on the sun. You see, when Jesus went to

Calvary, he took away the sting of death.

He took away the sting of temp, that all those temptations and

all those things that would come our way, that the grip of sin

was broken. At Calvary, we have a hope

beyond this world. We have a hope in this world.

All we have to do and John Ford Ford tells us greater is he that

is in you. Then he that is in the world,

all we have to do is reach out to him.

All we have to do is reach out to him.

Say Lord, just surrender all, just surrender all to him.

You see, our lives are not futile.

We have a purpose. Our failures are not final.

We've been forgiven. Death is not final.

We have eternity. But when we call on Jesus name.

We have the victory. There's healing in the name of

Jesus. There's salvation in the name of

Jesus. There's deliverance in the name

of Jesus. All we have to do is reach out

to him, reach out to him. No matter what's going on in our

lives, no matter what's happening in our lives, say,

Lord, I don't understand where I'm at.

I don't understand what's going on in my life.

He does. He does.

You just need to reach out to him.

You just need to reach out to him.

Why? Because it tells us the word

tells us that the God is stronghold in the day of

trouble. The things we we don't look for

the good. But God is in control.

Things don't look, Doctor. Good things don't look like

we're going to make it. But he is able.

He is able. In 1979, Hurricane Hurricane

David came to Florida. There was a group of men,

college guys that were living on a houseboat, and they were

living on this houseboat and they went out and they got a

bunch of rope and basically made a spider web.

They tied it to a tree, they tied it to the dock.

They took their boat and tied it all over the place.

An old sailor came by, said no, no gentlemen, you're doing this

wrong. You're doing this wrong.

You have to anchor deep those trees.

There's a possibility those trees won't be there when the

storm is over. There's a possibility this dock

won't be here when the storm is over.

But those rocks down below, they're not going anywhere.

You got to anchor deep. I'm here to tell somebody today

or anything you're going through in life.

Anchor deep. Anchor deep.

So you can say on Christ the solid rock I stand all other

ground is sinking sand. You're going to anchor deep into

Jesus Christ. Say, Lord, I'm going to give it

all to you. No matter what's happening in my

life, no matter what's going on in my world, My world may be

shaking all around me, but my anchor holds and grips the solid

rock. When we put our trust in Jesus,

he will never let us down. We can say my God, my God is

able to deliver me. My God is able to keep me.

My God is there for me when life storms are at their worst.

Don't be surprised if your answer comes walking on the

water because Jesus is there for us.

Oh Jesus. See the problems of temptation

may keep coming your way. We say my God is able.

My God, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood

and his righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest

phrase. But holy lean, holy, leaning not

apart. Not a little bit like not on

Sunday when it feels good. Not on not on church services

when it feels good. But I'm going to holy and how do

you holy lean on Jesus name. How do you do that?

You get into the word. You get into the word.

You get into prayer life. You have a prayer life of your

own. There's a There was a time ago

we went to we went to Deluge. It's a it's a Myrtle Beach.

They had an organization had a getaway for ministers and one of

the first ones, our church sent us, my wife and I, and they said

after that it was mandatory for pastor to go to Deluge.

And to get away. And one of the first ones Doctor

Boss got up and that she made a statement that was life changing

for me. She said that brother John said

I am not the Christ, Pastor, you are not the Christ.

And I got to thinking about that is pondering it.

Can I save someone? No.

Even if I did go to a cross, just be another person dying in

the in the list of people that have died on a cross but Jesus

but Jesus, I want to introduce you today to a man called Jesus.

I want to tell you today about a man called Jesus, because when

you have a personal relationship with him, everything changes.

Everything changes. You don't walk the way you used

to walk. You don't talk the way you used

to talk. You don't go to the places you

used to go to. Why?

Because they no longer have the appeal that they used to have.

Because you're connected to something supernatural.

You're connected to something totally different.

You're connected to him. And when you are connected to

him, everything changes and you can say, my God.

Is able to deliver me. My God is able to keep me.

My God is there for me no matter what I'm going through in life.

The winds will come and the winds will go, but my God is

able. Oh Jesus.

You see, prayer needs to be our first order of things, our first

order of business. See, we, we we go through life

and we we pray and we we talk to God, we talk to Him.

And sometimes we we get on, we get on that.

All right, I'll put it this way. The Christmas Jesus.

I don't mean the baby in the Manger, Jesus.

I mean the Christmas Jesus. Where we come to Jesus with our

Christmas list. And say, Lord, I need this, I

need this, I need this. Lord, I need you to work in my

life this way. I need you to do this way and I

need you to do this and that. And then, oh and God bless this

person and that person and this will see we want to give

presents to other people too. So we said, God bless this

person and that person and this person and that person and oh Oh

yeah, I got to go, bye. But when he becomes my God.

How how close of a friend would you have?

You say I text that person once a year.

We're close friends. I, I, I talked to that person.

Oh we talked about once a week and and and so we're we're we

talk about once a week in passing so we're close friends.

All right, all right. But you're close friends.

You're good friends. You can spend hours.

We were okay. I look, I look for my wife as if

she knows what I'm thinking, and she's going to give me

permission to say what I'm about to say.

We were coming home from a conference.

My wife and I and like Bill McGee, said, driving for us is

not a thing. I drive for work.

I may drive 14 hours in a day and never leave the state.

So that's that's what I do. And so driving for us is not a

thing. And we were down Kentucky.

Thank you. Stacy knows what I'm thinking

already. That's that's not, that's that's

36 years of marriage. That's not God.

Telling her things she knows I was, yeah, and we're driving and

it took us three days to get home.

It's like, how can it take you 3 days to get home from Kentucky?

It's only it's like a 12 hour drive.

It's not that far, comparatively speaking.

Well, with our friends we had gone out to, we'd had breakfast

together. And we sat and talked and then

we went a couple hours down the road and decided it was time to

go get a coffee Starbucks. And we got, we got oh Jesus help

us, we we got down the road, we started to stop at Starbucks and

three hours later we got back on the road.

And then we decided to stop for supper.

And we got down the road about another hour and stayed at a

hotel. Then we got down the road a

little while longer. We stopped, have lunch together.

3 hours later we got on the road and we went down a little while

longer. And then that night they said

why don't you come stay at our house?

It's like, no, because we want to go home by now.

We want to go home. We've had a great time.

These were our friends. We spent all kinds of time with

them. When you go to prayer, how much

time do you send sitting there talking and how much time do you

sit there listening? See, in our world today there's

a very high percentage. I read the percentage yesterday,

so naturally I don't remember it, but.

I read the percentage, but most people, majority of people

listen to a conversation to respond too.

Oftentimes we're spending all of our time responding to God out

of life. And we're talking and we're

talking and we're talking and we're talking.

How much time do we spend listening?

How much time do we spend sitting in His presence?

How much time do we spend saying, Lord, I know you're

able, Lord, so I'm going to stay here and just meditate on your

word. Lord, I'm going to sit here and

just meditate on the things of God.

Lord, I'm going to sit here and just talk to you and we're going

to have a conversation. And Lord, I don't want this

conversation to be 1 sided. But Lord, I want to listen to

you. Why?

Because you are the answer to my life.

You are the answer to my problems.

You are the answer to my situation.

So Lord, today I just need more of you.

I just need need more of you. I need more of you in my life.

Lord Jesus, help us. Help us Lord Jesus to listen to

you. At what point do we start

listening to God in our life? Slow down.

Our world today is so fast-paced.

There's so many things going on, so many things that are

happening, and it's faster, it seems.

Faster and faster. And here we are all the way

through July already. Well, actually we're not through

July already, but we're halfway through, over halfway through

this year. And So what do we have to do

tomorrow? And what do we have to do the

next day? And what do we have to do the

next day? And we're busy, and we're going,

and we're going and we're going. We say, Lord, we need to stop.

We need to stop and just take some time to have a relationship

with you, Lord, to listen. So that we can say when troubles

come our way, We can say my God is able to keep me, my God is

able to deliver me. My God, could we all just stand

to our feet. I'd like to like to do

something. If this is all all right.

I'd like us just if my wife would come the piano.

I'd like to just take a minute and say, Lord, I need more of

you in my day. I need more of you in my day.

Lord, life gets out of hand, life gets crazy.

But I know, I know who is able, Lord, all I have to do is reach

out to you. Yes, Lord, All I need to do is

reach out to you. I need you to guide and direct

me. Lord, you say, Well, I'm not

going through anything right now.

My life is good. Well, maybe we need to spend

some time thanking him. Maybe we need to spend some time

thanking him. When you have friends that do

nice stuff for you, good stuff, you spend some time thanking

them. Say thank you, Thank you Lord.

Thank you, Lord. If you would like to do that

today, I'm gonna open this front area up and we could just spend

some time saying thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me.

Or we can spend some time saying, Lord, I need you.

To lead and guide me, Lord, I need you for more of you in my

life. Is that your prayer today you

can come forward to or just find a place to pray and say, Lord,

we thank you for what you're doing in our lives.

We thank you, Lord, for your blessings.

We thank you, Lord, that you are my God.

No matter what I'm going through, Lord, you are my God to

bless you, to lift you up, to lead you and guide you.

He's here for you. All you have to do is reach out

to him. Just find a place to pray and

even say, I don't have that close of a relationship with

him. I really don't know.

Well, here's an opportunity. Here's an opportunity to say

Lord more of you. I just need more of you in my

life. I don't know where you are in

your life and your walk with God.

Thank you for listening. If you would like more

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Again, that's FACMC. Thank you and have a blessed

day.