God's Mysterious Plan Revealed | Elder Ang Peng Hoe

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church. We hope this message

will light up your day. You all know that I've been going through a

series of teaching from the Book of Efficients. I shared Efficients one. I

actually shared Efficients two at the eight am service and a few other services.

If you didn't get a chance to hear it, you could maybe get on

Spotify and listen to it. Today, I'm going to go to efficients tree.

And there's a reason why I tried to teach and preach not just one

or two verses. I tried to do it in a way where we actually

see the wholeness of a whole chapter, on the fullness of a book,

so that we understand the context in which some of the verses that we love

so dearly science, we like to quote verses out of context. It's not

very very good to actually keep doing that as well, if you especially if

you don't know where it came from. It's good to know where it comes

from. And today in efficient Street, there's this verse that we love to

use. No now onto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all

things. Uh, that's something that we gather actually in Efficient Street. But

let's let's let's study it on the whole. Let's read it on the whole

and know where it comes from. What is it that is actually being said,

so that we can fully grasp the full truth of the scripture? Amen?

Okay. So if you have your Bibles with you, you can turn

to efficient Street. I'm going to be teaching the whole chapter today, and

I hope I will help you all see things a little bit clearer and maybe

we all be enlightened by God's word. Amen. Okay. It starts off.

I'm reading from the NLT and it says the God's Mysterious Plan reveal.

That's the title given in the NLT verse one of chapter three. When I

think of all this, I Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the benefit

of you gentiles. Okay, technology where he's writing it from. Assuming by

the way that you know, God gave me the special responsibility of extending his

grace to you gentiles. As I briefly wrote earlier, God himself revealed his

mysterious plan to me. As you read what I have written, you will

understand my insight into this plan regarding Christ. God did not reveal it to

previous generations, but now by his spirit he has revealed it to his holy

apostles and prophets. And this is God's plan. Both Gentiles and Jews who

believe the good News share equally in the riches inherited by God's children. Both

are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because

they belong to Christ Jesus. By God's grace and mighty power, I have

been given the privilege of serving Him by spreading this good news. Though I

am the least deserving of all God's people, he graciously gave me the privilege

of telling the gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. I

was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the creator of

all things, had kept secret from the beginning. God's purpose in all this

was to use the Church to display His wisdom in its rich variety, to

all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal

plan, which He carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord, verse twelve.

Because of Christ and our faith in Him, we can now come boldly and

confidently into God's presence. So Please don't lose heart because of my trials here

I am suffering for you, so you should feel honored. Verse fourteen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to

understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life

and power that comes from God. Now, all glory to God, who

is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely

more than we might ask. All things. Glory to Him in the Church

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

the Lord Blessed. Reading of his will, you see her. When God

does a new thing, he chooses the most unlikely people to do it.

You notice that we would usually choose some who is suited for the task.

We will study the person. Okay, make sure this flurt okay, suitable

for the task. Let's go and get this person to do this particular task.

But when God wanted to bring the gentiles into his plan, who did

he choose? He chose the most fanatical Jew he could lay his hands on.

And this Jew is Saul of Tasses. All of us have heard of

his name, Saul of Tasses. He was like the mother of all Pharisees,

the Pharisees of Pharisees, not a manner, who wouldn't even sit on

the same table as gent towns. And God somehow found a way to arrest

this person on his way to the Mascus. And he was actually on his

way to put more gent towns into prison, Christians actually into prison. And

that time a lot of the Christians were gentile Christians. And he was like,

I'm gonna know, I have all these letters in my hand, I'm

going to throw them into prison. And as he was on his way to

the Mascus, he met Jesus and somehow his life changed thereafter. But you

have to take note of this, This is the most Jewish of Jew you

can find. And yet he says to me, God told his great secret,

and he was just bursting to share this secret. This was a man

who not just had an amazing, miraculous conversion. Yes, no, Paul's

conversion is something that a lot of us like, Wow, so can choo

the way Paul King Chow is so amazingly terror man my words, So it's

out of this world. Because there was one he went through. Know,

he was blinded by the glory of Jesus, lost his side law and then

before you know it, God orchestrated Annon i As to come into his life,

and then one thing led to another. Paul somehow regained his side and

then from a gentile hating Christian, hating Jew, he was in the synagogue

the very next moment preaching about Jesus to the very people, his own people

actually, when they actually have been rejecting Jesus like he has been all this

world. It was an amazing conversion. And sometimes if we think that Paul's

conversion is the benchmark of all conversions, a lot of us will be disappointed.

When I teach the Book of Acts, I always tell people don't dwell

so much on Paul's conversion, dwell on the fact that thereafter, for forty

years of his living life, he continued to believe that for me is even

more remarkable than the conversion, because some people say, only if I have

a conversion like Paul's, then maybe maybe my life would be really changed.

No, we don't need that kind of If it happened to you, great,

if you're on your way to the Mascus and something like that happened,

I think you remember it for the rest of your life. But trust me,

that is not the benchmark of the conversion. Schmark of the conversion is

ultimately, can you hold on to the faith all the way till the very

end, because that was what Paul did. He died not just believing,

I said, he died professing the faith because he knew that God has chosen

me to reveal this great secret. How are you when it comes to secrets.

I'm sure all of us like to be told secrets, and as none

of us are, Hey, let me tell you a secret, and we

are like I don't know. Usually like okay, you will be like yeah,

tell me tell me. And that's the reality. Of course, can

you keep it? That's a different thing. There's actually only one greater joy

than being told a secret now, and that's to be able to pass on

the secret to someone else. Uh. And that is how Paul actually felt,

because again I try to understand his Paul was known as Soul. Saul

was the proper Hebrew name. Paul is actually the Greek version of Song.

And this is someone who, overnighter of his conversion, decided to change his

name. Instead of using the Hebrew name Saul, he changes it to Paul

because he now has a great, big secret that he wants to reveal,

and that secret is to cause him to cross not just cultural barriers, to

cross all sorts of barriers that he was willing to change his name as well.

And I think that's quite amazing because now Paul in the Greek language is

prepared to bring this secret using his gentile name to the Gentiles, and the

change is remarkable. It's amazing not because you have to take note that he

is talking about being a prisoner for the gent towns again, a mother of

the mother of all Pharisees, okay, mother of all Jews. This guy

is like the Jew of the Jews. He's saying that I am now a

prisoner for the gen and I'm called to be a steward, a steward of

God's grace. What does that mean? Ever? Wonder what the word stewart

means. A steward is basically a manager. Some when you are called to

manage someone else's property, you are known as a steward. And that's why

we even with our children, we remind parents know, when God blesses you

with the child, we are stewards over the child. That means you're the

child. When God actually and trusts you to take care of the child until

a certain age, then you dosh and release them to the world. If

they are thirty five and they're still living with you, yeah, yeah,

not not not the best line, okay, unless there are different reasons.

But you know what I mean. You you you don't continue having to take

care of your children. It comes to a whole cycle. Eventually it's the

other way around. Children or end up taking care of their parents. But

stewardship is something that you know, we dedicate when we dedicate a baby baby

dedication which is coming up soon, there would be some baby dedications. We

are saying that Lord, this child is yours. If this child is this

child, which is your child, is God's then what is your role?

Well, your role is actually a steward. I'm here to take care of

this child. As long as this child is dependent on me, on us

as parents, we will continue to care for this child. And so a

steward is someone who manages. And Paul is saying that I am a prisoner

and a steward. I manage God's grace. I'm a steward of God's generosity.

Basically, he has been put in charge to distribute God's wealth. And

what a wonderful task, right, because you're called to be a steward of

God's grace. No, that's an amazing privilege to have all the wealth of

God. And now God says you go and share it with other people.

You go and distributed to those who are in need. And you can do

that wherever you are. You can do that, even if you are in

Chaine. And think not that Paul is actually in chains, because that's what

he's said in the letter I'm writing to you from the prison. And back

then, because he was a Roman citizen, I believe he wasn't thrown into

the dungeon straightway. They put him under house arrests. Most likely he was

probably under house arrests somewhere in Rome, and that's where he was writing this

letter to the Ephesus Church from Uh and house rest means you can stay there,

but someone is actually chained to you. So there is a God that

is actually changed. So wherever Paul, I don't know. I can't imagine

being the guard that was having been chained to Paul. No, everything that

Paul does, you got to yeah, and Paul is half the time once

he do what you think he's doing. He's writing letters like encouraging people,

praying for people. That's why sometimes that you read Paul, you realize that

even the prison gods so start to convert because of his life. And so

he's saying, this is the circumstances that I'm in, but yet I'm a

steward of God's grace. And you can be a steward of God's grace wherever

you are, whatever the circumstances. And now it comes to this mysterious plan

that he was talking about. Paul calls it a mystery, another word that

you can use. His secret, Okay, secret, mysterious mystery, God's

secret. It's a secret that is to be told. Nothing better than a

secret that can be told. I love secrets that can be told. I

don't like the secret that you have to make sure you don't tell anyone.

But actually I want you to tell everyone. That's the worst lat okay,

But this is a secret. But it's a secret that can be told.

God actually had an official secret, and he kept it for generations. He

didn't tell the people about it. He kept it all the way through the

history of the Jews, and he shared it. He told it eventually to

the apostles and the prophets of the New Testament. A secret that now can

be told. I remember I read some account on World War Two. You

know that UK actually has an Official Secrets Act, something in which that you

cannot deve vouch any official secret pertaining to the country for a certain period of

time. I don't know whether it's forty years or fifty years or something like

that. So you realize that after the World War there was nothing. You

don't hear anyone talking about anything that took place in the World War. This

is in the UK, but I think in the sixties or the seventies,

when this official secrets duration period has expired, then you study, then you

start seeing a lot of memoirs about World War being written because they're no longer

bound by the Official Secrets Act. Well, what I'm trying to say here

is this is a secret that God didn't want it to be kept any longer.

Now it's time to share it, and he shared it with the apostles

and the prophets. What is the secret? The secret is simple, is

that gentiles can now come to God apart from the Jews. That's the secret.

Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. God revealed this to Peter. God revealed

this to Paul and then to the other apostles, and God is going to

turn to the gentiles and He's going to deal with them directly. That is

a secret. What an amazing secret, because it meant that the person who

sought God did not need to join Israel. You did not need to become

a Hebrew. You didn't you did not need to be circumcised. Don't you

do not need to keep the tank commandments? Like how the Pharisees and all

the different religious people were saying that, oh no, you must keep the

tank com moments. You break the tank com moments. I kept all the

tank Com moments. They claim they kept the tank Com moments, but none

of them kept the tank Com moments. But you understand, basically, he's

trying to say, now you can come straight to God true Jesus, because

Jesus was the seed of Abraham, and that is a secret. Paul could

not wait to tell the world about this secret because God had now sent Paul's

to the Gentiles, not to bring them into Israel first. No, he

wasn't on this propaganda to make everyone a Jew. He was just on this

propaganda to bring Jesus to everyone. That is a secret, because if not,

he had to actually make everyone a Jew first. But we don't need

to do that anymore. And Paul did not take any of his Jewish traditions.

He only brought Christ Jesus with him. And that's why the Gentiles are

now on equal terms with the Jews. Do you'll realize that we are seated

here and we are co airs to everything that is promised in the Jewish scriptures.

We are all members of the same body, partakers of the same promise.

It's powerful if we understand that, because what is the word partake?

What does it mean? There's the difference between friendship and fellowship. Okay,

When you talk about friendship, is like a bunch of us friends, buddy

is No, we sit down on the table and we share a meal together.

That's friendship. When you are talking about fellowship, it's like, let's

just say, I don't know with Sean. No, I'm sitting down on

the table with a few friends and I'm sharing Sean's sandwich with Sean. That

is fellowship. You are partaking of the same loaf. The same food is

different, right, I mean, all you have your own meal, that's

friendship. When I sit down next to Sean, he takes a bite of

his sandwich, and I take a bite of his sandwich as well, a

bro, it's there's a kind of bond. But that is what partaking means.

When we partake. The word actually means fellowship. And that's why the

Lord's Supper we eat of the same loaf. There is one loaf, one

body. We are partaking off that loaf. That is what it means when

we partake of the Lord's Supper. If you understand that, and some churches

actually still practice that, that means you go to the church, they all

they all pull out from the same lawth one. Okay, today we all

give you nice individually peck loaves. But I think you all understand that that

is the body of Christ. We are all actually particking, not the literal

body of Christ, but we are particking and participating into God's body. But

we're doing it together. And that's quite different, right from just having friendship.

It goes much deeper. So the Jews, you have to understand this,

wouldn't even have a meal with the Samaritans. Samaritans were half Jews,

they were from Samaria. Part of them was jew the other part was something

else. And you know, even Jesus, I remember when he was at

a well with this Amaritan woman and he's asking her for a drink of water.

Left her so astonished because she's like one in the world. This Jew

is actually asking me, don't you guys don't even want to share couplet alone,

asks a Samaritan to actually serve you. But that's really we actually see

Jesus know right from the very start, bridging the gaps with it. But

for the Jews is a no no. And here we have Paul saying Jews

and Gentiles are now going to eat together of the same promise. It is

insane. It's actually an amazing secret because all the promises in the Old Testament

were made to the Jews. And you and I today can quote it.

Isn't it our privilege to be able to quote Jewish psalms? Think about it,

Jewish prayers and praisers, those are in the psalms and the problems.

We use it, but it was actually for the Jews. But we use

it openly in our devotion today. We have taken the same promises that we

have now taken for granted. Don't ever forget that that Paul understood the promise,

and it was a big secret for him, and it's a secret that

he knew he could not keep anymore. And because it was kept for centuries,

he's out and he is really going for it because he says, I've

got the secret God told me. He has revealed to me directly. And

here is the mystery, the mystery of Christ can now be told. Gentiles

and Jews are equal before God and can come through Jesus Christ. And gentiles

don't need to become a Jew before they embrace Christ. Hallelujah, Praise the

Lord. And Paul had to fight for this principle. No, he kept

fighting for it actually all his life. If you read his letters, it

was all a lot of it was about this. The letter to the Galician

Church, it's mainly about this because he was talking about one circumcisition. They

were still going on and on about being Jewish enough to become Christian or not.

When he is saying that, you just need to know Jesus Amen.

How does God share the secret? It's the next question that I want to

ask. How does God share the secret? Well, he shares it by

word of mouth, and that is how every other secret is shared. Somebody

says, do you can you keep a secret? Straight away? All the

years right, you're like, secret secret? Okay? No? Have you

ever said no, no, can you keep a secret? No? No,

I cannot keep a secret. Usually you'll be like, yeah, sure,

let me keep you the secret. Whether you have enough self discipline to

keep that secret? And I don't know, okay, But when you have

a secret, you want to share it one all of us want to and

a secret that can be shared it is even more amazing, and it's a

secret that can affect everybody in the world. Definitely, you can't keep quiet

about it. That's why Paul was chosen to tell this good news. To

share the good news is actually an amazing privilege. If you have the good

news for someone you it just can't wait to burst out of you. You

won't look at it as a duty or are you need to share good news?

I need to go and read books on evangelism to tell me the ten

steps that I need to do to make sure that this person understands what I'm

trying to say. No, if you have a good news, if you

realize how good God has been to me, you will bring it out and

share it with others because it's not just a duty anymore. It is a

delight. It becomes a delight for us, and it should not be undertaken

because we have a duty to go out to the world. Now. It's

because it is the good news, and that you just want to go and

tell someone else the good news. You realize I can't keep this to myself.

This is not a secret to be kept to myself. And so Paul

is delighted when he says, God shows me to tell this, and when

you have really got the good news, you will you will talk like this.

No, I am adaptor. I owe it to them to tell them.

I'm adapted to both the jew and the Greek. I have got to

tell them, this is the privilege that's given to me, the least of

all saints. But yet God has given me this privilege, and I'm in

debt. That's why in Romans he says, you owe each other nothing but

to love one another. And there is no greater love than someone who will

go out and share the gospel of Jesus Christ to people around them. We

are all in debt only to Christ Jesus Amen. That is the privilege that

we have. And this is why Paul says, I was made a minister.

I was made a servant. Again, I'm not pucking this out in

it. Read the scriptures, Read it line by line as I'm sharing,

go back digest it as well. It's really God who makes us ministers.

It's really God who makes us servants. Because there are two things that you

need to become a minister and a servant, a gift of God's grace and

a working of God's power. Paul says he was a minister by God.

Basically, a servant or a minister will need a gift of God's grace and

a working of God's power because on our own we do not have gifts and

we do not have the power to serve one another. We can't do this

by ourselves. We need the gifts of God's grace and the working of God's

power in our lives. That's why we need Jesus. We can't do this

by ourselves. And remember, this is nothing you can do to cause you

to deserve God's grace. Nothing, there is nothing but for you to receive

it. The act of faith is the reception of God's grace upon our lives.

That's why it says that in God's mercy we are saved by grace true

faith. We are not safe by faith. We are safe by grace true

faith. That just means that nothing we can do to deserve God's grace in

our lives. God's grace is something that He has given freely, but we

still need to is a gift. No, if I give you something and

you don't receive it, what's that? That's a rejected gift. And a

lot of us God is offering grace, but we are not receiving it,

because how do you receive God's grace? It is actually true faith. So

when you exercise faith, that is essentially you saying God, thank you for

your grace. And that's why your faith is something that can be seen.

One when you have faith in Christ Jesus, it can be seen. And

that's why faith without works is dead because you don't need to There's nothing you

can do to cause you to deserve God's grace, but you still need to

receive it true faith. You need to receive the grace true faith. Some

people say or even the act of reception is king, No, it's not.

The act of reception is receiving actually ultimately, because what you see is

the works of faith that if you have faith, you can see works of

faith being exhibited in your life. Paul is saying that all the laws,

if you try to abide by all the laws, even if you abide by

all the laws, you won't be able to deserve God's grace because it is

not because you observe the laws that God is giving you his grace. No,

he's giving you his grace because that's his choice to give you and release

that grace upon our like something that we don't deserve, but He has given

to us. That's why all your bad deeds is not going to impede you

from entering into God's grace, just like all your good deeds is not going

to promote you for entering into God's grace as well. But what you need

to do, you need to receive it. That is something that is so

important in our lives for us to understand. And that is why Paul is

saying, I'm a minister servant of God, and I need the gift of

God's grace and I need the working of God's power in my life because without

those two things, there is no way in which I am going to be

able to be a minister or a servant to bring the good news out.

Does that make sense, amen? And what is the minister supposed to do?

Paul says this. I was made a minister to preach the unsearchable riches

of Christ, which means that that unending wealth. And really, I say

this to a lot of people. We can actually stand up and preach God's

word till Kingdom come and there will still be enough material in God's word for

us to preach. Some people say, oh, yeah, I run out

things to share already about God's Word. No, I think there's so much

truth. It's just pecked with so much truth that you will never run out

of material. You can go through the Bible cover to cover and you still

find something new. I told this to the deaf community because they were like,

oh, we have how do we read the Bible? We haven't finished

reading yet? Is that Are we're going to be judged for not, you

know, completing the Bible? And I'm like, I told them, honestly,

I think I read it from cover to cover about ten times or more.

There's still so much, so much that I don't know, and so

much that we can still glean from God's word. Amen. And so really

we are to preach all of God's goodness? No, that's what the minister

is supposed to do. And what is the overall objective? Why all this

preaching? The answer is this to make all people see the plan that God

has. And that is what it's all about, literally, is to turn

the light on so that men can see. If really we are to fulfill

our team for this year, that all may know. The only way all

may know is when the light in our lives are littered up bright enough so

that others can also know. And then we must also go and try to

ignite the light in different ones. Oh may no, because we carry with

it we are lamp lighters. No, that's our job, actually, Paul

says, are to light a lamb so that they can see the plan of

God. A lot of us we live in this darkness, and once upon

a time, all of us were in this darkness. We had no idea

who this Jesus is? What is he doing? What am I doing here?

I'm just following my parents, wasting my time. Well, unless you

experience Christ for yourself, and you understand that my life once the stem for

death. Right now I have life, everlasting and abandoned life to live for,

then you realize what God has done. A light will be littered in

your life. And that is God's plan. No, God's plan is essentially

to unite all people in Christ. That is the mystery. The secret is

that Gentiles, Jews, black, white, rich, poor, clever,

simple is west, doesn't matter. God wants to bring all of them together

in Christ. And this is now our responsibility. Why do I say that?

Why? Why is this our responsibility? Because God's purpose in all this

is to use the Church to display his wisdom. I'm not making this up.

It's in the scriptures. And therefore you can't have Christianity without a church,

because that is actually God's visual aid. That is where you see his

plan fulfill people who normally never make think about it. You wouldn't be mixing

with each othern't know. Once upon a time, we don't even know each

other. Once upon a time, But yere today we don't just we're not

just friends. No, we are partakers of the same promise. We eat

the same break together. That is what the fellowship is about. And this

is the church. Once upon a time we weren't together. Today we partake

off the same loaves. Today we are joined as and members of the same

body. It is in the church where people see the wisdom and the plan

of God being worked out. That's why each and every one of us is

work in progress, because God is working out through us. But where do

you think people are going to see They're going to see in the church.

If each of us isolate ourselves as Christians, where are people going to see

the plan of God to bring people together? Church? We have a responsibility

and so really it's not a case of I have this first time on my

feet. Now I don't like to go to another church. No, you

don't do that with your family, do you. Okay, so you do.

I want a new our new fathers. I hear some kids nowadays a

small gan. I want to change father some parents. We're gone through there.

We're like, all right, all right, I see you doing that.

Okay, but we don't write because we are to work it out.

And you know you can't work it out by yourselves because on my own,

if someone pisces me off forever, I will hate that person. That's the

reality of it. But for us to be able to exercise grace and forgiveness,

it takes God's grace in us and God's power in us. Amen.

So the church is so vital, not so important to Christianity as Christ is,

for it is His body. And you've got to realize this, A

hatless body here. If a church has got no Christ, it's not a

church. That's the reality of it. And so a hateless body is no

use on the earth. No. But I can also say this, a

hat with nobody is also going to be ineffective. If the church has got

no body in it, then where the believers? Where are the Christians?

Because we are the body of Christ we are, I mean, he is

the here. He says, I have to leave you because I'm going to

be with the Father at his right hand. But what I'm going to do

is I'm going to leave my people here on this earth. I'm not going

to leave them alone. Thank God, he didn't leave us alone, because

he says that I'm going to leave my spirit with you. But his body

remains his manifestation here on earth. And that's why the Church is supposed to

be heaven on earth. When we say your Kingdom come, your will be

done, that is essentially what we are saying. Heaven has begun, heready.

Heaven is a raady on earth because the Church is a reflection of Christ

Jesus. Here we are part of his body. And we can't do this

on our own. If we depend on ourselves, we will end up shooting

each other. That's the reality of it. But because we have Christ Jesus,

and we have the Holy Spirit with us, and that's why we can't

do anything. And even the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit

in our lives, it's grace. Nothing you do to actually cause you to

be able to be deserving of God's Spirit in our lives. It's God's grace

upon us when you say, Lord, I believe in you, and He

envelopes us with his righteousness, and because of that, his spirit comes upon

us. And his spirit is the one that helps us make those decisions day

after day after day. The church has got such an important role. Don't

ever neglect that. We are also told that there is a mystery of God

that was hidden in the Creator before all ages. Again, I'm just going

through line by line of the scripture. You know, some people actually think

that God thought of turning to the Gentiles only as plan B, because in

your hat lay, you know, he came, he offered the kingdom to

the Jews, they said no, and then after that he said, all

right, let's just go with the Gentoles ors. But according to Ephicionstry,

God knew all along that he was going to do what he's doing. It

was in his mind when he created the world. He knew all along he

was going to go to the Jews first, and then he was going to

turn to the Gentiles. Then to complete the picture, He's going to bring

the Jews back in at the end. If you study the scriptures, you

will see that. Or as Paul puts it and Paul puts it in gardening

language. No, he says, Israel is cut off from his own roots

since Christ came. But you, Gentiles have now been grafted into those roots,

and now you are growing on the Jewish stock. And she says true.

No, you know that you read the Jewish Bible, you worship the

God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. How Jewish is dead. That's the

reality of it. And one day Israel is going to be grafted back in

and we will all be one in Christ again. God knew this, He

knew it all along, and so he went to the Jews. He gave

the Jews their own Messiah. And that's why when Jesus he says, I

was sent only to help God's lost sheep, the people of Israel. But

we know that the people rejected him. And yet and that's why sometimes people

always say because the people rejected him God actually actually, why God waste their

time? No, I don't understand why God had to choose the Jews.

I don't like it. I don't like the fact, and I think they

have been replaced by the Church. No, I don't believe the Jews have

been replaced by the church. I believe we are all still part of the

same stungu and eventually God will come back. Is his choice. Sometimes people

ask me, know, why did God choose the Jews? Why are they

He's chosen people. I'll be honest with you, I don't know. It

is his choice. Sometimes we question God as though he's got no free choice.

The only people with free choices us And that's why we all ask all

sorts of questions. I mean, the reality is, isn't he God Almighty?

It's his choice. I mean, you can feel free when you get

to heaven. I think I will ask God, Actually, God, why

the Jews? Why not the Russians? Why not the Americans? Why not?

It could be anyone, right, but ultim believe I want to understand.

Sovereignty is his choice. Amen. And he gave them the first chance.

And when they turned it down, Paul, Now, in the name

of crisis, I turned to the Gentiles and he did that. Amen.

But it was all part of God's plan, making known even to the principalities

and the powers. You read the scriptures. That means that this is not

something that only those on earth knows. It was also made known to the

heavenlyes. The angels also know, and angels are watching, and that's why

we should continue to be responsible with what we are supposed to do here on

earth, as they are supposed to continue doing what they're supposed to do in

the heavenies. But we're all in this part of God's amazing plan and pulses

because of Christ and our faith in Him, we can now come boldly and

confidently into God's presence. Amen, So please don't lose harder, he says,

no, because of the trials here, I'm suffering for you. I

may be in prison, but you should be trilled that a Jewish Jew is

ready to go to prison for you, gentles. And you can't stop me

from praying. And actually that's what he's saying, No, you can't stop

me from praying for you, because the two means that God uses to fulfill

his purpose are actually preaching and prayer. Preaching and prayer. It is those

two things. If those two things are strong in the church, the church

will be strong, because those are the two agencies that God continues to use

to ensure that his grace is made known. Why do you think in church

we keep preaching and praying some people will be like so boring Wick. In

week ouls of the same thing, an old dude will come up here,

yeah yeah, yeah a bit. Then after we just say a few prayers,

then we go home. There is power in preaching and prayer, and

when we turn to the next session, we actually see how God how Paul

says, I bow my knees for this reason. You know, actually in

his current state, he could no longer preach as easily as he could when

he was free, because he was in prison, he was chained, he

was curtailed. He no longer could just tell everybody, maybe the poor old

God who is chained next to him, that one can preaching all day,

but he can still pray, and he does no. He prays for the

church in Ephesus because he wants them to carry on the preaching. That is

a wonderful notion, right of one person telling another and then praying that the

other will tell someone else, And that's going to multiply if only we understand

the simplicity of the Christian operation is actually not that difficult. And that's why

there's this book now I share with the ams. It's called Operations World.

Have you ever heard of that book is a book inside that he's got all

the different things, statistics on different countries, know how many reach, how

many unreached, et cetera. Operations will the Christian operation is not difficult.

Is simple. Pray that the person in whom you have sh we will continue

preaching to the next person and this will continue and continue and continue. You

know, they actually say if one believer brings another pre believer or unbelieverd to

church in the span of one year, that means that in one year,

every Christian year brings one believer to church in the span of one year,

in about five years are the entire community will be safe. But it still

takes you to preach and pray. And that's the reality of it. The

method is preaching and praying and sharing the secret and pray that the person who

has heard it will pass it on. And so so I Paul says,

I pray for you. Now I'm bowing on my knees and I'm praying for

you. And how does he pray. He prays to the Father, our

Father in heaven. That's how he prays. That's how we are taught to

pray. And isn't that such a lovely thing that we have a Daddy God

to pray to. And Paul is doing that, and he's saying that,

you know, thank you for this reflection of family life here on earth.

Again, our family life here on earth is actually a reflection of God.

How he is not the other way around. A lot of times we think

that we are reflecting and God is taking our image. No, we are

made in His image. And what we have, the functional family lives that

we are supposed to have here on earth, is essentially how God intended for

it to be. And He intended for there to be a father, a

loving father who hears our prayers. Amen, And you know you will learn

a lot, and not just in knowing how a person preachers. You actually

will learn a lot about a person. If you see how the person prays,

you believe in that. Because if you study now what Paul is praying,

you will realize that he's praying for about five things for the church in

Ephesus. And I want us to look at all these five things that he's

praying. First and foremost, take note that he actually is praying for their

inner men rather than their outer man. I mean a lot of times we

always pray for very physical apparent needs or health, strength, food, clothes,

shelter. I'm not saying it's wrong to pray for those things, because

even in the Lord's Prayer it says, give us this day our daily pray.

It's physical needs. But what is the inner man? The inner manner

basically is the conscience, the will, the mind, the heart. Is

it going to be a strong conscience. Is it going to be a strong

will? Is it going to be a convinced mind? Is it going to

be a loving heart. When you pray for someone, pray also for that

person's inner man, that they may be strong on the inside. Because if

you're strong and held strong in mind, strong in soul, and that is

where all your strength is needed, even the physical weakness, you can cope

with. Actually, I believe in that. I've seen how people in their

the the worst physical state possible. But if they're inner man is strong,

it's amazing. It's amazing. They can be dying from a debilitating disease.

But if they're inner man is strong. Sometimes I am so encouraged when I

see someone who is strong on the inside because they're saying that, yes,

I mean all in all, I still give glory to God, it's amazing

pray for the inner man, because that's what Paul is doing. The second

prayer is this, he prays that they be in dwelled by Jesus. Wow,

what the heck does that mean? Now? The in dwell by Jesus

taken over by his strong personality. You have to understand. In John,

chapter one, verse fourteen, it says that the Word makes his habitation amongst

us. And we know, I know, I know. The Book of

John is one of those books that sometimes we scratch our hate when we read

it. But the word is in reference to Jesus, and Jesus actually wants

to make his home here with us on earth, and he wants to make

his home in our lives. And so his pray is that Jesus may be

at home in your heart. You can't be at home if there are things

in the house that you are uncomfortable about. Right. So, really,

when this prayer is being prayed, sometimes we really got to do a lot

of self examination because it's our heart a place where Jesus wants to be in

or not hard question to ask, but really it will involve law of self

examination on our part. But that was how Paul is praying, I pray

that Jesus will indwell in your hearts. And then the third thing is this,

He says, I pray that you may be established. This is when

he uses the words rooted and grounded. You see, if you're a good

gardener, you will make sure that the roots are solid. I mean you'll

concentrate, you make sure you fertilize the rules. You make sure you plant

it at the right place, put the right soult, make sure it's a

right pit, make sure you know. Then it will take hold and it

will bear fruit eventually. Paul prays that they may be rooted and ground that.

You see, he knows that it's only too easy. It's so easy

for USA to just embrace faith and know the moment you say yes to Jesus.

Sometimes we can be ablaze. Noah, we are all for it.

But he's saying, are you going to be rooted? And will you continue

whinner, say even forty years, fifty years, sixty years after that,

are you still going to be on fire? Or are you only on fire

at the inception at the very start. When we are rooted and we are

grounded, we will end up like him. Actually, I know sometimes we

think about it. I don't want to end. I'm like Paul, that's

not incentive. Ay, he died for his faith, he died professing.

But that's our call. Can we continue to fight the good fight and finish

the race believing? Amen. The fourth prayer is this. He prays that

you'll be enlarged. And that's one of the great days just of becoming a

Christian is become you become smaller and smaller because a lot of things. H

Jesus is saying, you cannot do this now, and so we come to

this place where all cannot do this, cannot do that, cannot do this.

Then we become smaller and smaller. But he also wants you to develop

new areas because don't just tick everything. No, I can't do this,

I can't do this, I can't do this. I can't do this.

No, I've got no right to speak on the truth of God's words anymore.

No, I'm just wanting to please everyone. This world has come to

this place where anyone can do anything, and I'm not going to offend anyone.

Maybe we become smaller and smaller and small. Paul is spraying that you

will be enlarged. He's praying that you may explore the length, the breath,

the height, and the depth of God's love in your life. He's

asking that you have a bigger heart because a big heart can cope with more

people. That is the reality of it. So he's saying that you may

be enlarged and know the length, the breath, the height, and the

depth of the love, which goes far beyond knowledge. Knowledge is good,

but love is what surpasses it. And he's saying that, I'm praying that

you will continue to be enlarged so that you will see people, not just

see them with judging eyes, but also see them with eyes that wants to

share the good news with them. And that means we've got to continue to

share the truth. We cannot say that, oh, we cannot offend anyone,

so let's not tell them about what we know, because they really say

that they will be offended. They are offended with this God who created two

genders, male and female. And because of that, let's not say anything.

No, let's not get there, because I believe that when God enlarges

us, we can do all those things in love. When you understand the

breath, the height, the death, and the land of God's love for

you. And finally he says, I pray that you'll be filled with the

fullness of God if you understand her how an atomic bomb works is actually just

a small little atom that causes an amazing powerful explosion. God is just that

small little thing in earth that can cause us to actually really explode and overflow

and be abundant. That is the power of God in our lives. And

we've got to be filled with the fullness of God. That's why the scripture

says that when you're filed, we've got not only do you have eternity life,

you have abundant life. It's going to be overflowing. And that is

how we should pray for other people, that they may be strengthened, that

Jesus will indwell with them, they will be established, they will be enlarged,

and they will be feeled. Amen. And you know that in this

Letter to the Efficients, we finally come to the last part and he says,

now to him who, by the power at work within us, is

able to do exceedingly abundantly more than all we ask or think to accomplish,

infinitely more than we might ask all think. I'm reading from the amplified version,

the band can come up. I'm almost done. Sorry I talk a

little bit longer today, but I just want to cover all that I believe

God wants us to know about his scriptures. Why sometimes do we not see

God's work? Why do we not see more of God's power in our life?

And I'll tell you why. It's because we don't ask, and we

don't think that's all He's able to do it. You know, That's why

he says, Now, unto him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly,

see, the creator of the heavens and earth can do anything. Why is

it that we don't see more miracles? Well, we don't ask. When

we ask, sometimes we can't imagine it happening. A lot of times.

That's where we are. No, we are praying sciences like oh one,

I want to see everyone come safe. I want to see everyone safe.

I want to see my whole community. I w see this whole nation safe.

But actually we pray, we can't really believe it. And so I've

come to this place where, you know, learning from the disciples and learning

from how Jesus taught the disciples. Do you know Jesus in Luke seventeen told

the disciples are, ay, all need to forgive your enemies. Then they're

like, I need to forgive enemies. I thought just forgive love once,

so bad enough? Need to forgive enemies? How often must I forgive my

enemies? And he says as often as possible, non stop, basically fourn

there and ninety times, which is probably non stoppler. And then they're like,

oh, need to keep forgiving people? Are Lord, please enlaunch my

faith. I don't think I can do it. And then you know what

Jesus' response is, faith as small as a mustard seed can move and uproot

the maulberry tree. That's why he says, Ever, wonder what that means

meant? Because sometimes even I do that, I'm praying God, and launch

my faith, give me bigger faith. Why did he say faith as small

as a musters? See? When I look at the amazing heroes, and

I love reading books of those heroes of faith who did amazing things even past,

the Kennet inspires me because of his big face. Is man of faith

who live his life with no salary, you know, just trusting in the

Lord. His stories are amazing and I look at it I'm like, God,

please enlarge my faith. And then when I read this and I realized,

Jesus is saying faith as small as a mustard seed. Basically, he's

saying that even if you have small faith, it can go a long way.

And so I've learned how to pray this, Lord, even with my

small faith, let me take one step and let me believe more as I

continue to take each step daily, faith as small as the masters. We

should pray that God will ignite the little faith that we have, not enlarge

the non existent faith that is not there, the little faith, because as

you keep walking, keep walking, then you will realize you begin to ask,

because you start to see with faith as you take those steps. We

don't see a lot of miracles because we don't ask. We don't ask because

unless we can't see it from happening. So ask for what you can see.

If you can't see, Lord, I want my whole nation to be

saved. Let's start with this, Lord, I pray that my family members

will be saved. Use me, Lord, use me to be a witness

to my love once. I want to start there. And I tell you

this, I pray this prayer for twenty years and it came to pass one

by one, step by step. There's still many more in my family who

are not say, but every time I see God moving, it ignites the

little faith. Honestly, after maybe after five or six years, you'll be

like God, you sure you can do this? Quite long reading or my

dad is the most stubborn person in the whole white world. I doubt he

ever say yes to Jesus. He will say yes to the argon and money,

but not yes to Jesus. But twenty years I kid you not,

and today I still continue to believe that my remaining family members, I will

continue to do it step by step. Don't cease praying. Pray for the

things that you can believe in, and I believe it will happen. Amen.

God is able to do more, and he has chosen to work through

our asking and our thinking. So we need to exercise that, the asking

and the thinking. And then the one who exceeds abundantly above and beyond all,

he will come to pass, and he will cause all that you believe

in to also come to pass. Amen. That is the amazing promise.

And I want to end by this. All glory belongs to Christ, Jesus

we take none of this, Paul being the greatest. Sometimes we want to

pray to Paul because of what he has done. Paul is such an amazing

correct and the Bible. But Paul is saying, you know, I'm the

worst of the worst. Way, I'm the worst of the worst. And

I can tell you if it's anything, you give all glory to Christ Jesus.

You know, I sometimes I don't even want to receive thanks for people

who tell me that thank you so much for preaching, because no, it's

God deserves all glory, not us the church. The glory of God true

the church. It's not the church that needs to be glorified, but it

is the glory of God in the Church that really we are to glorify.

That is the King of kings and the Lord of all and all glory belongs

to Christ Jesus. Amen. We hope you've been blessed by this message.

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be a good week. I hit for you. God bless