Embracing the Power of the Mighty God

"We see in John 1, verses 1 -3, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. This is talking about Jesus. That in the very beginning, he was there with God. He was a part of all of creation. And nothing that God created happened without him being present. He has the ability to create." [00:06:48] (32 seconds)


"Luke 8, verses 49 -56 tells the story of the young girl who was sitting in the window and fell out of it. Right? And they said she was dead. Jesus came. Jesus came and said, she's not dead, she's only sleeping. And he raised her from the dead. We have the story of Lazarus in John chapter 11, right? Jesus' friend. And it says Jesus waited four days and then he showed up and his sisters approach him and say, Jesus, if you'd been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And Jesus weeps with them because he feels their pain. He meets them in that moment. But then he says, get me to that spot where he's been buried." [00:09:29] (47 seconds)


"And he gets there and he says, roll away the stone, stone that covers the tomb. And I love the King James version of this that says, but Lord, he stinketh. Right? Hey, he's been in there so long, it's going to be awful. No, don't open that stone. And he says, roll the stone away. And then he says, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus comes out of that tomb. And he's brought death back to life. He's conquered death. What about sin? What about sin?" [00:10:16] (35 seconds)


"And you may remember this, the story of five friends, one of them who had been paralyzed, and so his other four bring him to meet with Jesus. And it says that when Jesus, and what had happened, right, they had brought him, they said, maybe this Jesus guy, we've heard he can heal, he can do great things, maybe Jesus can heal our friend, right? Maybe he can give us a full basketball team again, all five of us out on the floor at once, right? Maybe Jesus could do this. And they bring him, and there's such a crowd of people around the house when they get there that they can't get to the door of the house." [00:10:54] (36 seconds)


"But being persistent, believing, desperately wanting their friend to get well, one of them says, you know what, we can go up on the roof, right? The roof is just clay and straw, we can dig through the roof, and they do, right? They go up and they dig. They dig a hole through the roof, and they lower their friend right in front of Jesus as he's teaching. And it says, And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven. Now some of the scribes were sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?" [00:11:32] (41 seconds)


"And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, Why? Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise, take up your bed and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw anything like this." [00:12:21] (38 seconds)


"And so we see Jesus in this moment conquering sin. Of course, we then have the picture of Jesus himself. In Matthew 28, verses 1 -8, it says, Now, after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him, the guards trembled and became like a stone, like dead men. But the angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified." [00:14:03] (41 seconds)


"Remember the story of Job, right? Job was faithful, and yet everything was taken from him. All his possessions, all his land, even his children, he lost it all. And there are these friends that come and tell Job, hey, it's got to be something you did, buddy. This has got to be your fault somehow. And Job is struggling. I don't see it. And so finally in chapter 31, Job basically says, I want answers. What did I do to deserve this? Why did this happen to me? Have you ever been there?" [00:18:25] (49 seconds)


"Have you ever been going through trials? Have you ever been in trial and hardship and said, why me, God? Why? A couple chapters later, starting chapter 31, chapter 38, and through chapter 41, God answers. But he doesn't answer in the way that Job is hoping for. God shows up and he says, you have questions for me? Why don't you answer my questions first? Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you when I created the animals? Do you know how deep the ocean is? I do. Do you know how big the universe is? I created it, I do." [00:19:07] (55 seconds)


"So if we believe that God is a great and mighty God, how then should we live? How then should we live? First, I submit that we need to know God's promises. We need to spend time in God's word. We need to read our Bibles. We need to know it inside and out. We need to know what those promises are. If we don't take the time to understand what God's promises are, we don't know what God's promises are. We don't know what God's promises are. We don't then how can we trust in those promises far too many people think that the idea of God helps those who helps themselves is found somewhere in their Bible." [00:30:02] (38 seconds)


"John chapter 10, verse 10, is famous. It says this, The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. The thief is our enemy, the devil. And I believe that, when it talks about he comes to steal, kill, and destroy, a lot of times what it's talking about is he comes to steal, kill, and destroy our hope. If the enemy can attack our hope, If he can get us to lose hope that God's going to show up, that God is trustworthy, the battle's over. We give up and walk away if we have no hope. We surrender. We say, what's the point?" [00:32:39] (38 seconds)