(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

If you have your Bibles with you today, I'm gonna invite you to open it up to Ephesians chapter three, Ephesians chapter three, verse 20 is where we'll start today.

The writer here says, "'Now all glory to God who is able.'"

How many of you know God is able?

It doesn't say it here in this passage of Scripture, but God is able if we are willing.

God is able if we are willing, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

So here the writer writes the church at Ephesus and he reminds them that God is able to do more through His mighty power in and through them than they may ever think of or imagine if they're willing to step in to God's great plan for their life.

And I do believe that that same charge doesn't only go out to the church at Ephesus, but it goes out to the church here at Valorous too.

And I do believe that God can do infinitely more through His mighty power at work.

You know what?

He can do more than we can think of or imagine.

He is able to do that if we're willing to walk underneath His leadership, His authority, His great plan, and do what He's designed us to do.

God will do more than we can think or imagine.

And so today we're gonna learn how to step into that, how to really bring up there, down here, and step into God's great plan for the church.

Because the church is simply a group of people who have been caught out of darkness, walking in darkness, going their own way, and stepping into the wonderful light of Christ and begin to let God guide their way all the days of their life.

And so I do believe that God has a purpose and a plan for every single one of us individually, but He does also have a purpose and a plan for us collectively.

And sometimes it's difficult to get unified in the purpose and plan.

And the simple goal of this series is not only to teach us to bring up there, down here, but it's to unify our hearts in what God wants to do through us.

Not just through me, not just through you, not just through your family, but what does God wanna do through us?

How does He begin to wanna display His power in this world through us?

And if we dive into this passage, we back up a little bit in Ephesians 3, verse 10, it begins to tell us how God begins to work His mighty power within us to accomplish infinitely more than we might think, than we might ask or think.

The Bible says this in Ephesians 3, verse 10.

It says, God's purpose in all of this, all of what?

Basically, all of bringing different people groups together, the Jews and the Gentiles.

The writer here says, God had a purpose in all of this.

And he says, the reason God brought the people underneath Christ and underneath one banner was to use the church, to use these people, to display His wisdom.

Everybody say, His wisdom.

His wisdom in its rich variety.

Everybody say, rich variety.

To all the what?

Unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

It says, this was His eternal plan, which He carried out through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

And so God is still working out the fullness of His authority here on earth through His people known as the church.

God is still working out the fullness.

Jesus says, I've been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

But God is still, in this day and age, still working out the fullness of His authority in and through us, His church.

So when you come to Christ Jesus for salvation, when you trust what He did on that cross to forgive you of your sin, to put you back in right relationship with God, that relationship is for a reason.

And it's so you can step in to this relationship with your creator and my creator, and then you can begin to live underneath His authority, take in the authority that He gives you, and then begin to display it in this world, bringing up there, down here, so the world may know who this great God is.

And it's a display not only to your neighbor down the street, come on.

I'm not just trying to impress my neighbor down the street.

The Bible says it's a display to the unseen authorities and principalities in the world.

And so if we're really going to live out God's plan for our life, we have to first and foremost recognize that we are a display.

Everybody say display.

You're a display.

You're a model for God's goodness in this world.

To who?

To the principalities in the unseen world.

And so this is a beautiful thing.

I don't know if you've ever been to a store with an amazing display, but the display is there for a reason, right?

It's to captivate your attention so you begin to step towards the things in the store that the display is advertising if it's in a store.

I remember back in the day, I used to, before I became a pastor, before I went to seminary, I used to own a retail business.

I owned a retail garden center.

And it was a place where we put out displays every day and every season.

We sold Christmas trees during the Christmas season.

We sold pumpkins during the fall season.

We sold all kinds of plants and materials in the spring for people to beautify their yards.

And people would come and spend thousands and thousands and thousands.

Oh, I loved it.

Of dollars on their yard.

But you wanna know why they came to our nursery back in the day?

It was because, you know what, we offered a good product, but we set up amazing displays that drawed them in off of the highway.

And what did we put on display?

Well, I can tell you what it wasn't.

It wasn't dead plants, come on.

People ain't attracted to dead plants if they're trying to make their yard come alive.

And so we didn't put out flats of dead plants like some of the greater department stores do today.

Come on.

We put out some of the best plants we had on display to bring them in, but we weren't false advertising.

We put those things out there that look really good so when people come in, they're like, shoot, these plants look really awesome and they look really good.

Some of you are attracted to certain stores because they put certain items on good displays and awesome displays.

And so we typically put up a display in order to advertise something, in order to share something.

The Bible says that you and I, when we come to Christ Jesus, that through the church, come on, through the church, God's chose you and God's chose me to come out of darkness into the wonderful light to display His amazing wisdom to the powers and principalities in the heavenly realms, in the heavenly spaces.

We're a display for God.

We're a display to the powers and principalities in the universe.

We're a display to our neighbors.

We're a display of God's amazing goodness.

And so I wanna encourage you in that today.

God wants to do infinitely more than you or I can think or imagine, but we have to be willing to step in to being a display of God's goodness, God's grace, God's mercy, God's plan, God's perseverance, you know what?

God's love, God's joy, God's peace, God's patience.

And we're able to begin to display this in the world if we will step into it.

God's given you that gift.

The Bible says the fruit of the spirit.

It's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

God gives you and I that spirit so we can be a display of His goodness, His grace, and His mercy.

No matter how far off target we've gotten, God brings us back in through the blood of Jesus, through the resurrection of Jesus so that we can be a display.

The Bible tells us in this same passage of scripture in Ephesians, Ephesians chapter two, it says, for we are God's masterpiece.

We're God's masterpiece.

He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy chapter one, verse nine, it says, for God saved us.

Anybody been saved by God in this place today?

What does that mean?

The Bible says God saved us and, everybody say and.

So He didn't just save you, and He called us to live a holy life, a set-apart life.

He did this not because we deserve it, but because that was His plan from before the beginning of time to show us His grace through Christ Jesus.

To show us His grace through Christ Jesus.

His grace, His empowerment.

That's what grace is.

Grace is the unmerited favor of God.

I didn't deserve it, you didn't deserve it, but what is grace?

Grace is the empowerment to live out the life that He calls you to live.

And so we've been empowered by God Himself to walk in this world against the grain of darkness, against the grain of the evil that's in the world.

We've been called by His mighty power, by His grace to walk out in this world and be a shining light in spite of the evil one at work among us, come on.

We have the ability to step in as His people, as His church.

We're the greatest entity on this planet.

The hope of the world is the local church coming together and displaying God's goodness, come on, and God's grace through its variation to the world around it.

The Bible says, my enemy ain't flesh and blood.

The Bible says that our enemy is not flesh and blood, but our enemy is powers and principalities in the unseen world.

So again, some of us are fighting the wrong battle because we're constantly mad at somebody else.

We're constantly, you know what, hating on somebody.

And the reality of it is, you know what, because you're focused on being a display to the wrong entity, you're not winning the real battle in the spiritual realm.

And see, the enemy has your attention aligned towards the wrong source.

And really, our attention should be aligned with our great God who has come and defeated death.

Come on, death no longer has its grip on humanity.

We can be eternal beings forever and ever and ever because of what Christ Jesus has done.

He come and took the keys of authority back from the enemy at the cross and through the resurrection.

And my friend, He gives you and I the power and the authority to walk in this life, no matter how tough it gets.

We can walk in this life filled with His empowerment of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and be a display to the powers and principalities of God's goodness and God's grace and God's mercy.

In spite of what is going on, you and I have that power in our life.

And when we begin to live that way, that I'm an important display, I ain't just thrown together, I'm thought about carefully.

You're thought about carefully.

And we're an important display to the powers and principalities in the universe.

God cares about how we live and who we are in Christ Jesus.

But not only are we an important display, the Bible tells us in this same passage of Scripture that we're an important display to a big audience.

Again, look what it says in Ephesians chapter three, verse 10, it says, we're here to display His wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

And so, I like to say it this way because oftentimes, you know, people talk about worship being to an audience of one, which is, you know, our God, when we worship God, we're not worshiping, so to say, to impress other people with our song selections and how we're going about it, we're worshiping to one, right?

The God of the universe.

But I like to say it this way, we're worshiping to one, but we're playing to an audience of many.

In other words, our worship is for one, it is for our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to deliver us from sin and put us in a right relationship with our Creator.

Our worship is for that one, but it's playing to an audience of many.

Lots of people are watching our worship, but more so than lots of people watching our worship, the Bible says here that it is all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places that are watching our worship.

So I wanna encourage you, don't just worship when you're in a room like this with other people.

Worship in your bedroom when you're by yourself.

The audience is still alive and well watching your worship, come on.

Worship when you're with your family, worship when you're with your neighbors, worship in your small groups, worship when you're going through tough times, worship when you're on mountaintops, worship when you're in the valleys, because the audience is still alive and well.

Yes, you're giving worship to the one true God that brought you out of bondage, brought you out of slavery, saved you from your sin.

You're giving worship to Him.

It's much more than a song.

And you're giving worship to Him.

The Bible says we're to offer up our bodies as living sacrifices.

This is our true act of worship.

And we can worship for this great God, but we're playing to an audience of many in the unseen realm.

There's spirits, there's powers, there's principalities that are watching like in this arena, like we have seats all around in this arena.

And they're watching this battle go on in life with you and me.

And are we willing to trust our great God's goodness and the authority He's given us in spite of what's being delivered on the playing field of life?

Are we willing to keep on worshiping Him, keep on trusting Him, keep on believing Him, keep on understanding that He's not finished yet, keep on believing that He's gonna make all things new, keep on believing that He's gonna create a new heaven and a new earth, keep on believing that one day all evil will be in the abyss.

Come on, are you worshiping like that?

Are you walking like that?

Are you believing like that?

The audience is grand.

I don't quit worshiping when I leave this stage.

I don't quit worshiping when I'm not in the presence of my wife or my family or somebody I don't know.

No, no, I'm worshiping.

I'm worshiping because I know.

I know there is an unseen realm that's the spirit of the living God that's brought me alive in Christ Jesus and I can worship and be alive forever and ever and ever.

Come on.

But what happens?

What happens when we bring our various talents, gifts together, the gifts God gave us?

And we put those together and we unify around a vision and a purpose to bring up there, down here.

And we're not in contention with one another always.

And we're not battling each other.

But we're battling this life that is in front of us and we're working those gifts together, the gifts of mercy, the gifts God given us, the gifts of administration, the gifts of help, the gifts of passion, the gifts that God gives each and every one of us.

What if we're working those gifts together, unified for one purpose?

And our purpose is simply to be a display for God in this world and begin to love on the unlovable, begin to shine light in the darkness when people are walking around in the darkness and they don't know their way, we begin to teach them the way through Christ Jesus.

Amazing things begin to happen.

Worship begins to explode in a region, in a community.

And the church becomes alive and God becomes alive and darkness begins to be pushed out.

And I do believe in the intangible, intangible blessing of God.

And when we live this out in life, darkness is expelled.

Come on somebody, it's pushed out.

The community begins to change.

The street begins to change.

The school system begins to change.

The government begins to change.

Come on, the society begins to change.

Your county begins to change.

But the reality is we have to bring the gifts together.

The Bible speaks a lot about unification, not uniformity, being unified in purpose in God's plan here on this earth.

And I really don't think that the grandness of God is waiting to be exposed.

The reason the grandness of God isn't being exposed to the fullest of its potential is because people are unwilling to unify and be about God's business here in this earth and not letting the commonalities of everyday life begin to divide us in our thought processes and God's plan for us.

And I do believe that sometimes God brings you together with people that are totally opposite of who you are.

So together, we, everybody say we.

We can become a display to this world about how the spirit of the living God unifies us around one purpose.

Church isn't built on style, though we have style.

Church should be built on the truth of Christ Jesus.

Come on.

And the various gifts that he gives the church and they put together.

That begins to be illuminated in the community.

That begins to be illuminated in the spiritual realm and darkness begins to flee and light begins to prevail.

See, I believe that whenever the church is being the church and we recognize this big audience, I believe three things happen in the spiritual realm.

When somebody is rescued out of darkness and steps into the wonderful light and becomes a part of God's great plan, I believe that heaven, the heavens applause.

They applaud.

Look what it says in Luke chapter 15, verse 10.

It says, there is joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents and turns to God.

In the spiritual realm, when somebody steps out of darkness or somebody steps out of darkness into the wonderful light and they surrender their life to the Lordship and leadership of Jesus Christ as their savior and their leader, the Bible says that even the angels in the heavens begin to applaud.

They begin to have great joy.

Also believe that hell trembles.

Hell trembles.

Remember, we're an audience to the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

And this is what the scripture says in Matthew 16, verse 18.

It says, that Jesus said to Peter, now I say that you are Peter, which means rock.

And upon this rock, I will build my church and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.

So when we're truly building the church that God so desires to begin to illuminate his light into this earth, hell trembles.

Because hell's losing ground.

Hell's like Clemson was last week when Georgia beat them.

Come on.

Sorry.

Somebody said I didn't say anything about that last week, so I thought I'd bring it up this week.

Begin to tremble.

And I also believe that the world around us changes.

The world around us changes.

Scripture says in Matthew chapter five, verses 14 through 16 it says, you are the light of the world.

And again, when we talk about being the light of the world, a city on a hill, and being the light of the world here at Valorous Church, it's not just something catchy that we have.

We believe it's literally the calling on the local church to be a people and a people, to transform and change a people with the goodness of Christ.

Using the various gifts that we're given, bringing them together and beginning to do that.

We wanna see up there come down here, which I do believe it is our prayer.

God, may your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.

And when we say I'm willing to submit, everybody say submit.

Nobody in this room in their humanity likes that word.

But the reality of it is when we submit to God's great authority instead of some other voice or some other authority, and we begin to walk in that, the world around us begins to be transformed.

So if we're gonna begin to see God do immeasurably more than we can ask for or think of as a body of believers, not just as individuals.

First and foremost, we have to understand that there's this big audience and we're a display to this big audience.

But we also need to embrace this.

Look what it says there in Ephesians chapter three, verses 10 and 11.

God's purpose in all of this, bringing different people together underneath one banner, one authority, was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

So we have to embrace that God loves variety and that variety is a way that he displays his wisdom multifaceted in the world.

It's by giving us various gifts and we put those gifts together and we begin to operate in those gifts in the local church.

The gifts are given to us so we can leverage the gifts, encourage one another to walk out this faith that we have in Christ Jesus and begin to be a light together in the world around us.

It's not calling us to necessarily to, all of us to be some religious unit, but a bunch of people who have been in relationship with God and we're unified around the purpose that God has called us to as the church.

And we begin to live that out in variety, in the world around us.

That helps me a lot because I recognize a couple of things and I hope it helps you too, that it's not on my shoulders to be the light in the world by myself.

All the weight isn't on me, but I do have a responsibility with me and the gift God gave me to put that gift with your gift and you got a responsibility too.

And we have to put those gifts together and then together we can be this body the scripture talks about.

We can be this light that the scripture talks about.

We can be this masterpiece that the scripture talks about.

We can begin to be this unit that the scripture talks about.

And really and truly together begin to bring up there, down here.

I'm freed.

I'm freed that I'm following my Jesus, but I don't have to be Jesus in this world by myself.

God uniquely gives us a personality and a spiritual gift to go with that personality so that those gifts can be put with others with personalities and gifts.

And when they come together, it can begin to reflect to the nations of the world around us.

It's a beautiful thing to be you.

It's a beautiful thing to be who God created you to be.

And then I don't have to listen to the news.

I don't have to listen to popular opinion.

I don't have to listen to culture.

I don't have to listen to society.

I go to one word and it's God's word.

And God tells me who I am.

Society and things around us sometimes begin to shape our personality, but the personality is unique.

And what we do sometimes when we're gifted to be a light into the world, we're gifted in the local church.

We try to become somebody else.

And God never called you to be somebody else.

God wants you to be you.

Underneath the Lordship of Jesus in the gift that he gave you.

But we try to mimic sometimes, we try to mimic somebody else's personality.

And I'm freed up to be me and be who God created me to be with the gifts he gave me and be in the time and space and the generation he placed me, where he placed me.

And I root myself down in the Lord, not based on every opinion in the world, but I root myself down in the Lord based on who God is and how he's working through us.

Come on, together to reflect to the world.

And I'm living out my purpose and I'm freed.

I want you to listen to the scripture, Psalm 139, verses 13 through 16.

It says, this is a Psalm of David, but he says, God, you made all the delicate inner parts of my body and you knit me together in my mother's womb.

My friend, you were thought about before you were ever born into this world.

And when God knit you together and he gave you the earthly parents he gave you, he had a purpose and a plan for your life before you were ever born.

He had a purpose and a plan for you to be born in the generation you will be born in.

He had a purpose and plan for you to be born the race you are.

He had a purpose and a plan for you to speak the language you speak.

He had a purpose and a plan for you to be exactly who you are, male or female.

God had a plan.

The Bible says he knit you together in your mother's womb.

And David goes on to say, thank you for making me so wonderfully complex.

Your workmanship is marvelous, how well I know it.

You've watched me as I was being formed in the utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

You saw me before I was born.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

There's been a lot of days in my life.

I'm nearly 59 years old.

There's been a lot of days I've stepped away from God's plan for my life.

There's been a lot of days I've made a lot of mistakes.

But can I tell you something?

God's plan hasn't changed.

And God's plan hasn't changed for you either.

And what God's waiting for is for you to align with who he's made you to be.

Exactly who he designed you to be in your mother's womb.

And he's waiting to partner up his spirit with you.

Give you a gift in the church to begin to live out that plan that he's created you for.

You and I can get off course with that plan.

We can go our own way and sometimes good things happen and sometimes bad things happen.

But my friend, if you want that hole and that void, that place in your life where you may feel insignificant today to be filled, I'm preaching the good news of the kingdom to you today.

The good news of who Christ Jesus is and the good news of who he's called you to be and the good news of, you know what?

One day he is gonna finalize this kingdom.

It's been put into play.

It's been put into play at the cross of Christ and the resurrection of Christ.

But the fullness of the kingdom is on its way.

We're already kingdom citizens.

And if you wanna have peace in your heart beyond your own understanding and you don't want, you know what?

To live a purposeless life, I invite you today to consider who God is and who he created you to be and begin to walk in the fullness of it.

And let's see what God can do.

It'll change everything.

I have difficult days.

You have difficult days.

I have health challenges.

Many of you have health challenges.

I have relational challenges.

Many of you have relational challenges.

But this one thing I am sure of, of who God made me to be and what my assignment is in this earth.

So I will have peace all the days of my life because I have made peace with my God in spite of the chaos around me.

Come on, somebody.

That same peace is available at every single one of us today.

God's inviting you to trust him as savior and come underneath his lordship, his leadership, his authority, and you begin to live it out in the world today.

Let me pray for you.

God, you're an amazing God.

I thank you for allowing us to be a part of bringing up there, down here.

God, I pray for every man, woman, boy, and girl here today.

God, no matter whether it's a grandmama in here today, whether it's a young teenager.

God, whether it's an elementary kid today.

God, I pray that people would recognize Jesus who you are and they would surrender their own will and ask your will be done in their life.

They would begin to surrender their heart and life and offer themselves up as a living sacrifice and this be their true act of worship and recognize that God, all the days of their life, whether they got 30 more minutes or 30 more years or 80 more years, that God, he knit them together in their mother's womb for such a time as this.

And God, they would trust the gift of salvation that comes through Christ Jesus.

The blood of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sin, the resurrection of Christ for them to have new life.

God, they would begin to walk in it.

My friend, I don't know if this is your first time back to church in a long time, if you sit here every single week.

But I don't believe there's no other time for you to surrender to Jesus if you haven't already done so than right now of being the greatest time.

So if you're here today and you're lost, like a sheep without a shepherd, I need you to know there is a shepherd who wants to guide you all the days of your life.

And his name is Jesus.

If you need to surrender your life to him today and trust him for salvation in this new life, right where you sit, just say right where you sit today, say, God, today I surrender.

Jesus, I put my faith in you.

The cross, the resurrection, and the new life you came to give me.

And make a commitment to God right now in that prayer, saying today I wanna walk in it.

And I wanna bring up there, down here.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.