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Welcome to the live big broadcast with Derek Greer. We believe this teaching from God's word will empower you to live a full, impactful life in Christ. Let's dig in. Apostle Paul says, by the Holy Spirit, blessed be. In the Greek eulogy, which means to speak well of Paul begins this epistle with praise. As we should begin each day, in each moment of our lives. We're going to discover in the verses that we read today that Paul had learned that even when things don't go exactly as you've planned to keep in the forefront of your mind God's goodness, we can euloga where we get the word eulogize, we can still speak well of God, even in troubling and difficult times. Your boss may disappoint you, the government may fail you, but our God will never fail. Here's what I've learned in my journey. Sometimes God lets us get pushed to our limits because he believes in us so much more than we even believe in ourselves. And the situation is just an opportunity for us to discover all the things we're made of. He said, blessed be the God. Not just a God, but what more incredible, incomparable and incomprehensible than we could ever imagine. Oh, for a thousand tongues to praise his name. And the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God became one of us. To reach all of us. I think the great church, Father Athanasius, said it the best. Jesus became what we are so we could become what he is. The Father of Jesus Christ. And the Father the source, the root of mercies. And what Paul is saying by the Holy Spirit is if you went down to the trademark office, you'd discover that God himself is the one that has the copyright and the trademark on all mercy because he has a son with scars on his back to prove it. But watch this next statement. And God of a little bit. And God of all comfort. The Greek here is paraklis paraklesis. And most of us know the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete. It's translated Helper. In John. We see it in John 14:16. We see it in 14:26, 15:26, and also 16:7. But also in Scripture, God the Son is also called the Paraclete, the Helper. And we see that in First John 2:1, Hebrews 2:18, and Luke 2:and 25. But here, for the first time in Scripture, we see the Father as the Paraclete. There is one God, three persons sharing one nature and everything about God. Father, Son. Holy Spirit is bent on helping, advocating, aiding and consoling anyone who would call on him. And if God hadn't helped, there wouldn't be any help. And he continues, and this God who comforts us in all our tribulation, how many are going through a little bit of tribulation right now? A little bit of frustration, a little bit of agitation? My Bible says if one part of the body suffers, the whole part, or the whole body suffers. And I don't care what political party you support. I don't care how you feel about the president. Like it or not, we're all in this together. Yeah, like last week, y' all know what to clap or say, what with that one. The God of comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble. So you're in the situation you're in, not just for you, but here's what I know. Just like, you know, you go on an airplane, say, first, put your face mask on so you can help, you know, the folks next to you. God can only help me. Well, I can only help you if I let God help me first. And I'm confident that God will help me keep my head up because I'm committed to helping other people keep their heads up. And we're to do this with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. So we've been through 9, 11, we've been through Covid, the Great Recession. We've been through many things in this DMV region, and God has delivered us from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear. And who is this uncircumcised Philistine that should dare defy the armies of the living God? Any person with God on his or her side is a majority. Skip to verse eight, for we do not want you to be ignorant. Here we have this great apostle, and he's not putting on his church face. He's not pretending, you know, he's being honest about what he had gone through. He said, listen, I don't want y' all to be ignorant brethren about our trouble. And we need to have people in our lives we could be real with. We need to be able to talk with one another. And I know that everyone's not your friend, but I also know everyone's not your enemy. If you're struggling, talk to somebody who could say, God did it before and he'll do it again. This is not our first rodeo. He said, listen, I know I'm an apostle, and I started my letter that way. I recognize all of the way you guys see me and what I look like when I stand behind the pulpit and the revelation God's given me. But listen, I don't want you to be ignorant of what we went through which came to us in Asia. People are experiencing the same thing around the world. It's not downsizing, it's somebody's uprising. And life can get hard, but with God, it's never impossible. Despite the freckles and dark spots in life, it is still so very, very beautiful. And he continues that we were burdened. Watch this beyond measure. The image here is of a ship so heavy laden, so overloaded that it's beginning to sink and it's taking on water. Today it would be the image of an aluminum can crushed by a heavy foot. If an apostle, a man who wrote more letters or more books of the New Testament than any individual in history, felt so burdened by his situation, why are we so surprised that from time to time we feel burdened? He said, let me get real with you. Don't be impressed by my preaching and my teaching or the miracles. We were burdened beyond measure and above our natural strength. Despite all the miracles he performed, he felt powerless. But what I know, God tends to send his strongest soldiers into the toughest battles. And here's the deal. Tag your it. Dmv and we were born and built for a time such as this. And he continues, he didn't want anyone to be impressed by his title so that we, it wasn't just him, despaired even of life. This was a big statement because we all know Paul's history and he was no crybaby. Five times he received 40 stripes, minus one. Three times he was beaten with rods. And they used those rods to. They were little like caning sticks, but they were made of hard wood. The Romans in particular was hard wood. And they would beat the victim in its feet and his legs so that he could never walk again. Three times beaten with such rods, once stoned, left for dead. Three times shipwrecked in the open sea, on and on. These were very rough and tumble individuals. But Paul and his whole team said this. We despaired even of life. He was saying, as far as all common sense, our ability to figure a way out, we were dead men walking. Now, we don't know exactly the circumstance that Paul was facing at this moment. Maybe he was thrown to the lions, as some suppose, and somehow he survived and he, he somehow won the battle. I. I don't know. But there was a whole lot of unthinkable Ancient horrors that were the possibility. But if Paul could keep his head, if Paul and his men could keep his faith, we can keep our head. And we could keep our faith. Why? Because the same God lives on the inside of each of us. And he continues. Yes, we had the sentence of death. Watch this in ourselves. This was something all of them felt on the inside of them or deep within. And it's one thing for others on the outside of you to count you out, but when everything on the inside of you said, you're finished, it's over, you're done, that's a whole other ball game. I know. I have been completely finished several times in my life. One was when I was in college and my college told me I was no longer welcome there. Another was when we had to shut down the first church that I pastored because we didn't have the funding to continue on. But what I've learned over these years, the person who goes into the storm is not the same person that comes out of the storm. And that is what the storm is all about. May I say that again? The person who goes into the storm is not the same person who comes out of the storm. And that's what the storm is all about. He said. Yes. Despite my apostleship, despite the fact I saw things and heard things in heaven I can't even tell you about, despite the fact that I have an anointing that has impacted the globe and would impact the globe for millennia, despite all of that, we had the sentence of death in ourselves. I remember during the Great Recession when my wife and I, we put a lien on our home to keep Grace Church afloat. And at that point, not only was Grace Church sinking, it looked like we might lose. But the person who goes into the storm is not the same person who comes out of the storm. And that's what the storm is all about. So watch God's purpose. They had a sentence in themselves, a sentence of death. In other words, they received emails too. And he said, all this happened. Here's the purpose that we should not trust in ourselves. When I think about when the doctors told my wife and then brought me in and told me that my oldest son would be born deformed. And then after he was born, his brain would probably be exposed and he would probably not live very long. I remember the season not too long ago when we lost hundreds of members because the building you're sitting in came with too many problems and too many delays. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves. I. I've been through some moments in my life, I couldn't see my way through to the other side. But all that happened for a reason. So that I could learn not to trust in myself, trust in my plan, trust in my brain, trust in my relationships. All that happened that we should not trust in ourselves. If you never get in over your head, you'll never discover how tall, how big God is. We're going to have to learn to trust in God or trust in ourselves. We're going to trust in God or we're going to keep trusting the government. Did God really bring us this far? To only bring us this far? And if God can't keep you, nobody else can. Stay with me. He's like, yes. I have to admit, as anointed as my life is and as strong as God's hand is upon me, I'm a genuine apostle. I've literally seen Jesus myself. He sang despite the fact that I sang psalms and hymns and prison doors were open and the earth shook. But this time we couldn't imagine any shaking that can get us out of our situation. We had the sentence of death in ourselves. In their minds, they were about to buy the farm, kick the bucket. They couldn't even hope against hope because they lost all hope. But it happens so that we should not trust in ourselves. So here's our modern problem. Our modern problem is that most things we can fix in our own strength. When we get Sick, we have 17 possible doctor's offices to go to. When we're broke, there's some places we can go and at least one of our family members is all right and can help us. But sometimes in God's wisdom, he has to let us get in so deep that we can't help ourselves. And all we can do is look to Him. Yes, I put on my pants one leg at a time. He's saying, just like each of you. Yes, he's saying, I got the email too. Yes, I wondered what I might do. We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. What did we learn last week? Sometimes God lets things die on purpose. Jesus said it this way in John 11:15. I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you might believe. He was saying, you wanted healing, I wanted resurrection. And there's something you want, but God has something better in mind. And in his mind he's like, I'm glad right now you can't trust your job. I'm glad right now you can't trust the government. I'm glad right now you don't know about tomorrow, so you can begin to lean in the one who holds tomorrow. You hear what I'm saying? And begin to trust him like a God that can change things, do things and make it even better. He said, I'm glad for your sakes that I wasn't manifest, that I wasn't there. And for those of you from a different party that the other guy got in office that's gonna go over, That you might believe. Knock me down till I'm seeing stars if you must, but like a boomerang, I'm coming back. You hear what I'm saying? God's gonna build it into a testimony, a story of his goodness, his greatness and his strength. He who watches over me neither slumbers nor sleeps. God's got my back, my side, my front and Mr. Devil. Enjoy your laugh now if you want to. Because I serve a God that could take a hit. I serve a God that could take the very worst that mankind and humanity could throw at him and still get back up in three days. Don't tell me, don't tell me what your God can't do. He is the resurrection and the life. He'll put a getting up on the inside of you, despite what happens if this. I know I'm coming out of this. I know I'll get to the other side of this. You can't explain it, but there's something on the inside that knows everything is going to be all right. Yes, we have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. I'm not the only person in this room who's been down for the count. I'm not the only person in the room who's had a relationship, a financial situation or whatever situation where there was no natural hope. And in that situation, you just kind of surrendered. It's like, well, I guess this is just the way life is. And maybe in that great getting up morning, everything will be all right. But right now, Lord. But that's when God reminds me of Romans chapter 14 and verse 9, it says he is lord of both the living and the dead. Yes, he will completely fix everything later, but he also knows how to handle right now the living and the dead. I don't have to die to know his goodness in this life. He's Lord Kurios, master and ruler. The disciples were in a storm. Jesus got up, calmed it all. God knows how to speak peace into your situation. He knows how to Resolve our every issue. But we believe in a God who raises the dead. Watch this. Verse 10. Who delivered us? They thought it was over. Sentence of death in themselves. But don't tell me what God can't do. Even when you can't imagine it, God can still do it. And it says God delivered them from. Watch this. So great a death. He didn't just call it death, he called it so great a death. Meaning what he was facing was off the charts. These guys were dead. Bigly. Yeah, y' all got that. But notice the tense he who delivered us is past tense. So he delivered us in the past, and then he continues and does deliver us. He delivered us in the past, he'll deliver us in the present. In whom we trust that he will still deliver us. Future tense. So the God who delivered us in the past will do it in the present, and we'll keep doing it in the future. Anything we put under God's control is never out of control. God's got you. He will keep you. Give it to him. Give it to him. Give it to him. Give it to him. Give it to him. Cast your care on him, for he cares for you. Verse 11. And he said, you also helping together in prayer for us. Meaning, you know, I didn't do all this alone. And he was saying, you know, sometimes even I need prayer. He was saying that I got through this because of the help of some friends. You also helping together in prayer for us. What wings are to a bird, sails are to a ship. Prayer is to the soul. Yeah. And if we're weak in prayer, we end up weak everywhere. The NIV says this a little bit clearer. It says, as you help us. He needed help. Not just this is he needed help. It wasn't just past that. As you help us by your prayers, believing prayer helps. It matters. Sometimes all we can do is pray. But as you help us by your prayers, then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us. Watch this. In answer to the prayers of many. If my people called by my name, would just humble themselves and pray, seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and heal their land. My Bible says the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. I want to ask you, what is all this studying God's word week after week about what is all this serving and doing the parking lot and all the other stuff we do around here every week? What is all this tithing and all this generosity, giving and serving and blessing others? If God can't take care of us. What is all that if God can't answer prayer? Don't mishear me. God's not answering our prayer just because of the things we do. God doesn't answer prayer because we're good. He answers prayer because he's good. My confidence is in him. Why are we trying to get to know him? Why are we serving him if he can't respond? If he just exists, Often the by and by, if he can't handle your situation right now? The greatest tragedy in life is not unanswered prayer. It's unoffered prayer. I was young and now I'm old. And I've not seen the righteous forsaken neither their seed begging bread. When my babies were sick he heard me when I could not pay the rent he heard me when I was confused in my mind he heard me when I thought they might take my church take my home he heard me when friends walked away. What? He heard me when the doctor said it was incurable he heard me when I felt all alone all by myself didn't know what to do, who to call, who could help. He heard me and my God will hear Jew if you call on that name above every name that can be named. His ear is inclined to the righteous. He who sits high looks low. And he cares. Grace Church dmv, People across America. God has you. God's got you. This is a small problem to God. A little bit of my heritage ain't no thing but a chicken wing. If God lets you get moved from where you are, it's because he got something better. My God is good. My God is faithful. Now a thousand government workers may fall at my left hand. 10,000 subcontractors, a non profit. Am I right? But as for me and my house, it shall not come near me. God upholds me and I live under the shelter of his shadow. And under his wings I will trust. I will look to the hills from which cometh my help. My help comes the Lord. Give God a hallelujah because he got your back. He's on your side. He's for you. He'll take care of your children. He'll take care of your bills. He'll work things out. He's a faithful God. An on time God and there's no circumstance in your life bigger than Him. Thank you for joining us. Until next time, remember you have what it takes in Christ to live big. We also invite you to partner with Derek Greer Ministries in bringing the life changing and impactful teachings of God's word to the world. Get started by visiting Derekrer.com by clicking the link in the description.