Ephesians 1:15-23

[0:00] Ephesians chapter 1, we'll start reading in verse 15. He says, Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that he may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward, who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought and crossed, when he raised him from the dead and sent him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

[1:16] So that ends chapter 1 there, and the main verses I want to kind of concentrate on there is starting at verse 18 and reading on through verse 21.

[1:29] But if you go back to verse 18, it says, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that he may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward, who believe according to the working of his mighty power.

[1:50] But if you pay attention to verse 17 as well, and he says that he's making mention of the church in emphasis in his prayers, and this is what he's praying.

[2:00] He says that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. And then he goes on to say that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.

[2:12] So verse 18 is a continuation of the prayer that he is mentioning in verse 17, but he's saying that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened.

[2:26] Folks, we got to remember when we're reading this, and when we're reading the rest of the letters that Paul wrote, that he is writing to these churches, he is writing to fellow believers in this, but he's still saying here that he prays that God will open their eyes of understanding.

[2:43] He'll enlighten their eyes of understanding. In other words, what I'm saying is these are born again Christians, these are people that had heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, they had heard of the death and the burial and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, and they believed these things when Paul or whomever had preached these things unto them.

[3:07] So he was writing to fellow believers in Christ, but he's saying I'm praying to God that he will enlighten your eyes, that he'll enlighten your eyes to understanding, and he goes on to say the things that he does in the following verses, but he's praying that God enlightens their eyes, that he opens these spiritual eyes so that they can see these things, and he talks about the power of God, and he goes on in that same verse to talk about the mighty power of God, the exceing power of God.

[3:38] Folks, he's telling these people, at emphasis, I'm praying that God opens your eyes, that you can see his power, not necessarily that you can have his power, but that you can see his power.

[3:53] He's writing to fellow believers, people that have been resurrected from the dead, spiritually speaking, just as Paul had. Paul, when he was on that road to Damascus, he was a dead man that was walking to persecute the church of Jesus Christ, to ridicule them, to throw them in prison, and to possibly kill some of them.

[4:18] He was a dead man walking and Jesus Christ in his power, and in his glory, shown light all around Paul. He saved Paul right there on that road.

[4:29] He blinded him, showed him what kind of state he was in, and in both, he saved Paul, wrapped him in there. That was the power of God. That was the resurrection.

[4:40] That was a picture of resurrection, just like every saint born again. John of God is another picture of resurrection.

[4:50] Hallelujah. Amen. He's praying that God opens their eyes to this, enlightening their eyes. He says, the eyes of your understanding, being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us for who believe according to the working of his mighty power.

[5:16] And he goes on to explain what that mighty power is that he is specifically speaking about here. Folks, I understand that God is all-powerful. I understand that God is omnipotent.

[5:29] God is omnipresent. I understand that he has power to do what he wants, when he wants, and he doesn't need my permission. He doesn't need your permission to do it.

[5:40] He is God. He is the eternal one. He is the ancient of days. And he needs not man's permission, or man's OK, or man's infant to accomplish his will here in our lives, here on this earth, or any other aspect that we can think of.

[5:59] It was God's power that split the Red Sea. It was God's power that caused the walls of Jericho to fall. It was God's power that resurrected Jesus Christ from the rain.

[6:12] And that is what Paul wants the church in Ephesus to realize. Which he wrote and crossed, again, speaking about the mighty power of God, which he wrote and crossed.

[6:26] When he raised him from the dead and set him in his own right hand in heavenly places, talking about this mighty power of Almighty God, he's praying that God opens their eyes, that God enlightens them to this.

[6:40] He enlightens them to his power. Folks, it's disturbing to me. Now, I hope that it is to you as well, as many churchgoers and as many professing Christians, and as many people that we more or less know to be born again.

[6:58] We walk around in defeat all the time. We walk around, and we see others walking around, and we sag our heads, and we complain, and we groan, and we murmur, we do all these things as if we are defeated.

[7:13] But folks, if we have the power of God, the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead has got the same power to raise me from the dead.

[7:24] One day, that power is inside of me. It's inside of you. If you're saying, why do we walk around like we're defeated when we are inhabited by the one who cannot and never has been defeated?

[7:41] We have no right to walk around in defeat. We have no right. We have no reason to walk around like we are defeated by the powers of darkness, by the powers of sin, by the powers that infest this world, by the powers that are over this world.

[7:58] Hey, Paul said himself, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We wrestle against the principalities. We wrestle against the wickedness. We wrestle against the darkness in this world.

[8:09] We wrestle against these things. We wrestle against spiritual things. But you know what gets most Christians in trouble? You know what makes us hang our heads down? You know what makes us walk around like that more often than not?

[8:23] It's sin in our lives. It's sin in my life, sin in your life. But hallelujah, praise God, and amen. I've got a merciful God.

[8:33] I've got a forgiving God. That if I go to him with that sin, I don't have to feel like I'm defeated. I don't have to feel like the demons are on my back.

[8:45] I don't have to feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders. God can remove every bit of that. This is the power of God.

[8:55] The power of God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we're talking about, folks. That power stretches so many spans.

[9:06] It stretches, I mean, literally, it stretches as far as the heavens are wide, as far as the ocean is deep, and as far as the sky is high. That's how powerful God is.

[9:17] There is no measurement. There is nothing. I don't think there's words that can describe the power of God. But all Paul was saying here that he was praying for was that God opens the eyes of the church in Ephesus, that they can see His power, that they can behold His power, that they can understand His power, not necessarily have His power.

[9:43] Hey, if you're born again, you've got the power of God inside of you. I'm not saying you can jump the walls. I'm not saying you can stop the storms on the water or an earthquake or anything else.

[9:57] But I'm saying that God is in you. Therefore, the power is in you. And we tend to forget that. We forget that as Christians.

[10:09] No, one of the best thoughts I've had about this, and I've chewed on it for a while now, one of the best thoughts I've had about this whole shaman, this whole fault, this whole process, those speaking of earthquakes and volcanoes and storms and such.

[10:26] God has power to stop all those things. God has stopped all those things. God stopped storms. We read about it in the Gospels. Jesus simply stepped out on the boat.

[10:38] He said, peace be still, and the wind and the waves listen to Him. The storm listened to Him. There wasn't anything else He could do. Hey, He's the one that made the wind.

[10:48] He's the one that made those waves. He's the one that made the moon that controls the waves. He's the one that done it all. Jesus Christ has power to do all of these things.

[11:00] Almighty God has power to do all these things. The folks, even that, wasn't as uncomfortable to the power of God. Hey, we've seen the power of God in the creation of the world.

[11:13] God simply spoke, and there it was. There was the earth. There was everything that God needed, everything that God wanted, and everything that God willed right there before Him to shape, and to mold, and to do with what He pleased.

[11:27] But even that does not compare to the power of God. When Jesus Christ was crucified, when He was killed, buried, when He resurrected on that third day, that was the greatest display of the power of God.

[11:43] This earth has ever known. And it'll never get any better than that. Not even in the rapture of the church. Not even then will the power of God be displayed any better than it was the day that Jesus Christ resurrected.

[12:01] That was the ultimate display of power. Why was Paul writing these things to the Ephesians? Why was he letting them know what he was praying, and why he was praying it?

[12:12] Folks, he was writing these things, because obviously in the church there was some confusion as to what the power of God entailed. Some people would say this, some people would say that, others would say this and that, others would say it's only half of this and two thirds that.

[12:27] There was confusion within the church, and Paul here was saying, I'm praying that He opens your eyes, that you can see His power, His true power, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[12:40] But Paul goes on, praise God, He don't stop there. He says, not only did God have all power to resurrect, He only begotten of the Father, He had all power to do that, yes, but it was the power of God that had caused Jesus Christ to ascend into the heavens.

[12:56] It was the power of God that set him at the right end of glory. It was the power of God that made him mediator, that made him intercessor for our sins, for yours and mine, and all these things fall down to the power of God.

[13:14] That's what Paul wanted them to see. Not power. I'm assuming, like I said, this is assuming, this is spencer.

[13:25] I'm assuming there were probably confusing some of these things with gifts of the Holy Ghost, gifts of the Holy Spirit, saying, well, I've got more power with God, because I can do this.

[13:37] I've got more power with God, because I do that. I've got more power with God, because I preach. Well, I've got more power with God, because I blah, blah, blah. And it ain't no different now.

[13:50] It ain't no different now, 2000 years later than what it would have been in any of those churches, especially at the church at Corinth. We won't even get into that. That was a big problem that they had in the Corinthian church.

[14:02] But Paul was wanting them to see, hey, it's not in your gifts. What did Paul tell the Corinthian church? He said that the way he spoke in his presentation of the gospel was the demonstration of the Holy Spirit.

[14:16] That was the demonstration of the power of God, not in gifts that he exercised, not in things that he'd done. It was his speech, and it was the gospel. Hey, he told the church at Rome, he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it's the power of God under salvation to all of us who believe first to the Jew, then to the Greek.

[14:38] Hey, that's the power of God. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God. That's the power that we need in our lives. We got a bunch of phonies out here in the world.

[14:53] Turn on your TV, listen to your radio. People say, well, I've got power to do this. I've got power to do that. I've got power to touch and heal. Now listen, I believe in the gift of healing.

[15:04] I do. It's mentioned in the Bible, I believe in that gift. I do. But when these people exercise this so-called power, and then months or years, or maybe even decades later, it's exposed what they really are.

[15:19] What does that cause? It causes the world, it causes the unsaved world to mock at God. It causes the unsaved world to mock at the gospel. It causes them to make fun of the gospel, to make fun of the people of God.

[15:32] It causes the unsaved world to do these things, and it causes the saved world to look back and say, well, I thought that he had power with God.

[15:43] What happened to that power? Hey, if he's living this way, if he's living that way, if he had that much sin in his life, how can he possibly have that much power with God?

[15:53] He never had the resurrection power of God in his life. Hey, Satan is a mockery of the gifts of God. He will mock, he will fake those gifts, just to make it believable that those people are of God.

[16:10] You look at the courts of Pharaoh in Moses' day. You look how the rod was thrown down, it turned into a snake. The Egyptian magicians, they threw down the rods, they became snakes.

[16:21] You look how many times that happened in the scriptures, how many times these things happened. You look at the little girl that followed Paul and his buddies around for a little while over in the Book of Acts, then Paul finally turned around and rebuked her.

[16:34] Hey, she was telling the truth. She said, these men are here, they're here to tell us about Jesus. They're here to tell us about God. They're here to tell us these men are of the most high. They're legitimate and Paul turned around and rebuked her.

[16:47] She might have had power to know things, but I have power to know prophecy, but it was not the resurrection power of Jesus Christ.

[16:58] That power, we gotta have discernment folks. We have got to have discernment. And not only in picking and choosing, who we believe in, who we don't, but in what we exercise and what we don't.

[17:12] As far as those gifts of God go, hey, anybody can go to an altar, anybody can cry a few tears of guilt, anybody can quote unquote give their heart over to the Lord.

[17:23] But why is it that most of the people, 90% of the people that do that, you give them a year, you give them three years, you give them five years, they're right back out in the world doing the things that we're doing before they went to that altar.

[17:37] It's because they never received the power of God. They never received the resurrection power. They were dependent on the power that was within themself and that power is useless without God.

[17:51] Oh man, we gotta take heed folks. We have got to take heed what we believe and what we practice. For above all, principality and power. Still talking about Jesus, still talking about the resurrection, still talking about Jesus being seated at the right hand of God.

[18:07] For above all, principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that, which is to come folks, that is power.

[18:21] That is power. That's my Jesus that Paul was writing about there. He says above everything, above ever been a power that's here on earth. Hey man would not have power at all if it weren't given to him by God.

[18:32] You read what Jesus told Paul when Paul said, you not understand I have the power to crucify you and I have the power to set you free. Jesus looked at him and he said, that would have no power at all if it weren't given to him from my father above.

[18:47] If it wasn't given to you by my father, you would be powerless. That tells me even the wicked rulers get their power from God. I don't care if you love our current president or hate him.

[19:00] He was ordained of God. I don't care if you like Trump or not. He was ordained of God. I don't care if you liked Obama or not. He was ordained of God to be in that position for the time that he was.

[19:11] That power was ordained by God for them to be where they were when they were. Don't take my word for it. Read the last couple of chapters of the book of Romans if you don't believe me. All those people that are put in those places are there.

[19:26] They are ordained of God that they are there. And folks there is nothing that we can do about that. God doesn't need our permission. God doesn't need our votes to put them in office. If God wants them there, they will be there, period.

[19:40] And that's power. We the people, and I'm trying to get political at all, we the people used to feel like we had power.

[19:50] That's dwindled a lot. We used to feel like the ballot boxes a powerful thing. Say, well, if you can't convince them while they're in Washington, convince them right on out of Washington at the ballot box.

[20:02] Well, that ship don't really sell them much no more does. That ship don't sell much anymore. But anyway, I said I try to get political. Everybody, I don't care if we're talking about the president, I don't care if we're talking about the Senate, I don't care if we're talking about the 400 and some members of the House, I don't care if we're talking about the governor all the way down to the mayor, all the way down to the community leader, whatever in the world that's supposed to be.

[20:29] Those people are in places of power because God ordained them to be in places of power. Period. God ordained people, He ordained pagans and heathens over in the Old Testament to be in positions of power.

[20:43] He ordained Darius. He ordained Nebuchadnezzar. He ordained Pharaoh to be where he was. He ordained every one of these people to be where they were. And he has all power to do that.

[20:55] It wouldn't have mattered how many Jews, how many other people had risen up against Pharaoh. God wanted Pharaoh there to bring in blood, to pronounce to the Egyptians who God was, and to pronounce to the Israelites who their God was.

[21:12] God has a purpose in all those things, whether we like it or not. God has a purpose in it. That is the power of God. And those things, that's just a few little tiny demonstrations of the power of God.

[21:24] Think about when you got saved. I don't know your personal experience. And y'all might know mine, you might not. But think about that. Think about the power of God that came in your life.

[21:36] The power of God that you could feel coming in your body and kick every bit of that sin out. Think about that clean feeling that you had. Hey, the moment that I got saved, that's the cleanest I've ever been in my years of walking here in this life.

[21:49] I was almost sinless, almost sinless there for just a moment. I was almost absolutely perfect. But folks, I've never been perfect.

[21:59] Not even the moment that I got saved was I perfect. But praise God, I will be perfect one day by God's power and in God's way, in God's time, and in God's place.

[22:12] As God will demonstrate his power on me, I got never thought possible. Amen. I will be made perfect. You're right. I will be made perfect.

[22:22] I will be made in lock and fashion and the Son of Man. Praise God. Jesus Christ, he's far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named.

[22:33] He's far above everybody in other words. Y'all remember y'all perfectly quoted enough times there at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 28. He says all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

[22:45] All power was given unto him in heaven and in earth. There is none more powerful than Jesus Christ. There is none more powerful than Jesus Christ. Told him, I believe it was in John chapter two, the Gospel of John chapter two.

[22:58] He said, you tear down this temple and I'll build it back up in three days. He said, I will build up this temple in three days. I, if you kill me, if you take the life out of this body and he knew that that was their plan, he knew that's why he was here to begin with.

[23:14] He said, if you tear down this temple, I will build it up again in three days time. And that precisely what he did, that was the power of God.

[23:26] That's the same resurrection power that God uses to save souls. That's the same power he used to save me. He used to save you. It's the same power because it's the same God.

[23:39] And God does not change. Over in Mark I said, I am the Lord and I change not. Praise God that he gone. I hate to think that I was having to keep up with an all-knowing God.

[23:49] I hate to think that I was having to keep up with this daily plan if it was constantly changing. But we have this plan right here in his word and this word does not change. I don't care what man does to it.

[24:00] I don't care what they had, what they take away, what they rip out or what they erase. We cannot change the word of God, nor the will of God, nor the power of God.

[24:12] I thank God I've got his power in me. I praise God for that. Now, I say there's a lot of folks out there, they try and demonstrate the power of God.

[24:23] They demonstrate it in miracles. And listen, I ain't saying miracles don't happen, but there's a slew of people out there, a slew of people.

[24:34] They're just phonies. Playing out, they are phonies. And they're saying, I have the power of God. Watch me do this, watch me do that, watch me make this person's leg grow a half an inch.

[24:46] Watch me heal this person of blindness. Watch me heal this person of whatever ailment it is that they're suffering from. Watch these things, folks.

[24:56] That is not a demonstration of the power of God. And folks really do have the gifts of God. That is nothing more than exercising that gift that God has given us.

[25:08] But that is not a demonstration of the power of God. A demonstration of the power of God is presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ. This demonstration of the power of God is living a holy life in front of the people that we once hung out with, the people we used to drink with, the people we had, the people that we partied with, the people that knew us before we knew Jesus.

[25:30] That demonstrates the power of God in our lives. Amen. But we let things drag us down. Yeah. We let things drag us down.

[25:41] I ain't saying it drags the power of God down. God's never lost any of his power. And nor will he lose any of his power. But we let it drag us down. We let sin drag us down.

[25:53] We let despair drag us down. We let doubt drag us down. We let sickness drag us down. We let all these things drag us down. And the more it drags us down, the less we remember the power of God that is within us.

[26:06] The less we remember about that resurrection power and have put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church.

[26:16] Who has put all things under his feet? God has put all things under the feet of Jesus Christ. God has put all things under the feet of Jesus Christ and has put all things under his feet and gave him, who gave him?

[26:28] God gave him. God gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him, that filth all and all. Folks, that's a powerful statement in and of itself right there.

[26:41] That filth and everything. That filth all and all. Jesus Christ fills all and all. Hey, we are the body of Jesus Christ. He is the head.

[26:51] Why is that? Because the head is what commands the body what to do. The head is the one that tells me to take a step. The head's the one that tells me to reach out and grab something or to jump or to duck or whatever it is that I'm needing to do.

[27:06] It's my head that does it. My heart cannot tell me to do that. My kidneys can't tell me to do that. No other part of my body other than my head can tell me that Jesus Christ is the head of his church.

[27:19] Jesus Christ is all and all. Jesus Christ is in everyone that is a member of his church and it takes power and nothing more, nothing less, nothing else but the power of God to be able to do that.

[27:35] Let's not forget that. Yeah. Do not forget that. That's all I said earlier. Even the moment I got saved, I still wasn't perfect. You flip over sometimes to Hebrews 11, you see all these people of great faith.

[27:49] You read about all these folks of great faith, wonderful faith. We read about Abraham. We read about Sarah. We read about Moses. We read about David. We read about all kinds of people over there.

[28:00] We read about Noah, but none of them were perfect. None of them were perfect, but they all experienced the power of God in their lives. You take David for instance.

[28:11] David, hey David defeated a lion. He defeated a bear. He defeated the giant Goliath. Hey David, them wonderful things, but those were all demonstrations of the power of God.

[28:22] Those were demonstrations of his faith in God because God had proved himself to David. David trusted in God. David had seen the power of God demonstrating in his life.

[28:33] Why wouldn't he do it? But we all know what happened to David. We know how many of the commandments he broke. Hey, he committed adultery. He lost it after another man's wife.

[28:43] He committed murder. He done all kinds of things. He stole another man's wife. How many of the commandments did he break? But yet he goes to God. It seeks forgiveness and finds forgiveness in the power of God to be able to do that.

[28:59] Hallelujah. That's my God. Amen. He went to God. Even after everything that he had done, even after all those things, you read it over on the Psalms, David's laments over his sin.

[29:13] It made him feel awful. Made him feel awful that he had sinned against a God that had done so much for him. But God, in all of his power, could have destroyed David.

[29:26] He could have destroyed David, but instead God used his power to restore David. To restore. That's what David asked for in the Psalms. He said, restoring to me the joy of thy salvation.

[29:38] Restoring to me the joy of thy salvation. In other words, God I know I'm yours. And God I know I've messed up, I've messed up bad. And I don't even feel I can saved anymore. The God I'm asking you to restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, the joy of your salvation.

[29:54] Not my own, I have no salvation of myself. My salvation comes from God. And that's another demonstration of the power of God. Only he has the power to save. Only he has the power to convict.

[30:07] Only he has the power to show us what we need. And only he has the power to do something about it. And to continually do something about it. In Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, has put all things under his feet, given to be head over all things of the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

[30:28] The fullness of him that filleth all in all. The fullness of Christ. He fills all in all, he fills me, he fills you. I told you all more than once I know.

[30:40] Jesus Christ, the power to do that is in the Holy Ghost. The ability I should say to do that is in the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ can be with you and be with me at the same time.

[30:53] He can be with me somewhere on West Coast. He can be with you all over here on the East Coast. He can be with me in Antarctica while he's with you in Alaska. God can do these things through the Holy Ghost.

[31:04] And both that is a demonstration of the power of God. That's a demonstration of his wondrous works. That's a demonstration of something that only he can do.

[31:15] That's why so many people in these other religions out there that get so confused as to how in the world somebody could be so devoted a Christian in this side of the world.

[31:26] And somebody on the other side of the world could be just as devoted as they are. It's because we're saved by the same God. We're saved by the same blood. Saved by the same power.

[31:37] We're led by the same spirit. That's why because of the power of God, our devotion should all be the same. Amen. God's demonstrated his power of my life by saving my soul.

[31:50] Paul, one of these Ephesians to see that the power of God was not necessarily in what they could do, but in what God had done through Jesus Christ.

[32:00] He wanted them to see that the power of God was demonstrated best and demonstrated holy in Jesus Christ and in his resurrection from the day.

[32:13] It was demonstrated most of all in the resurrection. That's why I said it don't matter what miracles happen. I said, they don't matter. If you look at Solomon Gamora, so are the other cities of the plan that God destroyed.

[32:26] Hey, that was a demonstration of God's power. Absolutely. There wasn't the one that could rain down fire and brimstone from the heaven to do that. You look over in the gospels, you're reading in the gospels where when Jesus Christ died, we read that the bell in the temple was written twain.

[32:46] We read that there was an earthquake. We read that the tongues of the saints of old were open. We read that they come out of the breeze. It says they went under certain people. Hey, can you imagine their conversation saying the power of God has released me from the grave?

[33:01] This is he, this is the one, this is Yeshua, this is Messiah that was promised, this is the one that was promised to bruise the head of the serpent.

[33:12] I believe that's why they were released to be a testimony. When he was killed, when he was killed, those bodies were released, they were released on faith.

[33:23] They were released on faith. Jesus hadn't been put in the earth at that point. They were released on the faith that they had way over in the Old Testament without a Jesus Christ. It was just a promise of Jesus Christ that they had.

[33:34] But they were saying, this is the one, the one that you just crucified, the one that just yelled out, it is finished. The one that just let out his blood, this is the one.

[33:47] This is the one. They were released to be a testimony under that. Folks, we read about all kinds of imperfect people Peter's one that always pops in our mind being imperfect.

[33:58] But every one of them was imperfect. Peter, yeah, he denied the Lord. Even after the foreknowledge that Jesus Christ give him, that he would, he still wind up doing it.

[34:09] He wound up denying the Lord, but he's not the only imperfect one. I am and you are as well. And there's all kinds of examples of in scripture. We don't use David, we don't use Moses.

[34:21] Hey, we could use a slew of other people in there. There's a woman named Tamar over there in the book of Genesis. Hey, she wanted to have a baby. She married one boy.

[34:31] She couldn't conceive. God struck him down. She married another boy. She couldn't conceive with him. God struck him down. God struck down three of them. She dressed as a prostitute, went to her father-in-law, Judah tricked him into lying with her and had two babies by him.

[34:51] Yes, that was wrong. Yes, it was wrong. Yes, it was sinful. Read Genesis 38. You see that whole account in there.

[35:01] I'll tell you why that happened though. I'll tell you why that happened. And I'll tell you why it's in Genesis 37 or 38 because in Genesis 37, you see Joseph and you see his brothers.

[35:15] You see, Joseph go out to meet his brothers. You see his brothers hating Joseph. The 12 sons of Israel. The 12 sons of Jacob and they had hate in their hearts.

[35:26] You saw this and they sold him off into slavery. They sold him off to abandoned merchant men and they took him down to Egypt. All that happened in Genesis 37.

[35:37] You saw the wickedness that had infiltrated God's people in Genesis 37. Genesis 38, you see Judah. Judah now over in Genesis 49, you see Jacob make a promise to Judah.

[35:50] You see, Jacob say, the scepters will never depart from you. The kingdoms promised to Judah. Who's Jesus Christ? He's the line of the tribe of Judah. The scepters will never depart from you, Judah.

[36:01] That's what Jacob said way over in Genesis 49. But in Genesis 38, you see this woman, Taimar. And you see her marrying one brother after another.

[36:12] And one brother, he wouldn't conceive with her. It's not that he was unable to, but he wouldn't. God struck him dead. God struck him dead because he would not conceive.

[36:23] Folks, that was a practice back then. It didn't become law till later on, but it was a common practice back then that if the man died, if the husband died, that the woman was to marry a brother to carry on the man who died, carry on his seed, to carry on the bloodline.

[36:45] But in Genesis 38, we find all these wicked things. Two babies were born, two babies. One of those babies is direct descendant of Jesus Christ.

[36:58] Direct, directly in the lineage of our savior, Jesus Christ, over a wicked act of a woman dressed up as a prostitute to lay with her father-in-law.

[37:09] Yes, it's sick, yes, it's sinful. No, it wasn't perfect, but God used that. God used that. And one of her babies became, was in the bloodline of Jesus Christ.

[37:23] How, if you look at Rahab, Rahab was far from perfect. Rahab wasn't even a Jew. Rahab hanging out there in Jericho. We know what her profession was. The Bible makes it very plain where we all know her as Rahab the Harlot.

[37:36] Rahab the prostitute. Rahab the woman of the night, whatever you want to call her. But she was also in the lineage of Jesus Christ. A Gentile, nonetheless, a Gentile prostitute was in the very blood lineage of our savior.

[37:51] Don't tell me God can't use that. Don't tell me Rahab's in hell either. Don't tell me that either. Hey, I've heard people say, I've heard that preached from pulpits. I have, because she was what she was, she's in hell.

[38:04] Hey, God, if that wasn't a demonstration of faith, what she did, she didn't have Jesus back then. She didn't have Jesus over in the Book of Joshua.

[38:15] Hey, Joshua was a picture of Jesus Christ, but he wasn't Jesus. She didn't have Messiah, but she had heard of the God of the Israelite. She had heard how he'd split the Red Sea.

[38:26] She had heard how they got across Jordan in the worst part of the flood season. There was only one that could demonstrate power like that, and it had to be the one true God.

[38:38] And she had faith in that. Yeah. I fully expect to see Rahab in heaven. I fully expect that. It's gonna be a lot of people surprised to see me there.

[38:49] There will be. And there'll be people surprised to see you all there too. There will be. But I'm going, and it's by the power of God that I'm building. And that's the only reason I can go.

[39:00] Most we have got to keep our eyes open to that. We've got continually pray that God opens your eyes to that. God keeps your eyes open to that.

[39:11] To the demonstration of his power and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And praying for discernment and anybody that's saying that the power of God is anything else.

[39:23] We hear it said all the time. We probably prayed it ourselves or said it ourselves. We say, I want the power of God in my life. Be sure you know what you're praying for and be sure you know what you're asking for before you pray that prayer.

[39:38] Cause listen, the power of God, like I've done said, is immeasurable, is immeasurable. But the greatest demonstration of it was in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[39:50] God helped us to never forget that. Couple of calls, we can look at things that we do. Even things that God aids us in doing. Things that God guides us in doing. Ways that God sends us.

[40:01] We can look at these things and we can get the big head about us and say, look at the power of God that I have exercised. Don't you forget and God helped me to not forget where that power came from.

[40:14] It came from God. But the greatest will never be in me and it will never be in you. The greatest was in Jesus Christ. Not only in the resurrection, but also just the fact that God took him in his power and set him at his right hand.

[40:29] Therefore, forever to be our King, to be our Lord, to be ruler. He set him over all principalities. He set him over all power. He set him over everything.

[40:39] Jesus has all the power. If you have any, it's because of Jesus. God helped us to not forget that. God bless you all.