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Hey, good people, this is Torre Roberts. Blessings to you and welcome to the ONE Podcast. I'm excited that you're here. ONE is a community of dynamic and vibrant thought leaders, preachers, teachers, and just a community of wonderful people all together. And we're excited to bring you this weekly podcast from our services from ONE in la. If you haven't been to one, I encourage you to check it out. You can go to One the Word one O N E online and find out all about the service times and all about the teachers and all the philanthropic things that we have going. I believe you're going to be blessed to be a part of it. And speaking of being blessed, we're getting ready to get into a teaching right now that I believe is going to bless you. So tune in, enjoy, and I'll be back with you at the end.

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Ephesians 3:20. The first word now. Now, to him who is able to do. That's it. Exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us to him be glory in the chur by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Let's read verse 21 more time. I want to hear everybody. Now, to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. It's okay to get excited about what we expect God to do now. Oh, glory to God. Glory to God. I'm going try to preach. I'm going try to preach. Sit down, sit down, sit down. So listen now unto him. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think. Paul is writing something so phenomenally powerful and it is so spiritually critical for us to understand, because Paul is actually writing this from prison. He's not writing it from his breakthrough. He's not writing from the thing that worked out. He's writing from prison. So I just want us to recognize that there is something internal, it's spiritual, about the abundance that he's describing. And the fact that he's saying it from prison only elevates it. Because Paul is also always pointing out that even when he's in physical prison, but he identifies himself not as a prisoner of Rome. In this case, he's in prison in, well, Rome was in charge of all the stuff. So he's a Roman prisoner. But he always identifies himself not as a prisoner of Rome, but as a prisoner of Jesus. Always he says, I prisoner of Christ. And so he himself is actually A prisoner that belongs to Jesus. Why? Because he knows who Jesus is and what Jesus has called him to do. See, a lot of times we don't recognize that the will of God requires such submission to us that when we say yes, it's not just yes, it's yes. Oh, see, you think. You think you want to know the will of God. You're just like, if I could just know what God's will is, I'd be okay. If I just knew what he wanted me to do, I'll be okay. But until you have known his will in such an inescapable. Until you have embraced his will and said yes, and on a day when you want to say no, but you literally can't get out, escape, turn around, walk away, you can't. Because so sometimes we think that, yes, the knowing God's will is a freedom. And also it makes us prisoners. Because there's no way that I can turn around and say, I don't want to no more. Take my ball and go home. Where you going? We're prisoners of Christ. So it is in this place of a prisoner that he's writing about abundance. But it is in this posture of a prisoner of Christ that he's writing about it. And he's writing to the Ephesians, the people in Ephesus where he was there pastoring them for three years. He knows these people. So this letter to the Ephesians is not a letter to strangers or to those who are just hearing about Jesus for the first time. It's not a letter even of correction. And Paul will correct. We know he will go off on folks humbly in print, but he's not writing to Ephesus that way. He is writing to them as those who know Jesus, who know the life of Christ and who he wants to elevate. Because Ephesus was very much like la, a commercial hub. It had a lot of commerce going on. A lot of cultural elements came out of Ephesus that were influential, but they were also an extremely intense religious center. So there was a lot of occult practices there and magic and emperor worship. They worshiped power and control. And so because it was such a spiritual environment, he has to consistently remind them of their identity in Christ, that they don't begin to access those things as a way to get what they want, but to stay focused on Jesus. Much like Daniel I mentioned earlier, they had pulled them out inside of an oppressed land because of their gifts and talents, but they refused to be rewarded in the same way as the world they didn't want to access those systems and give those systems credit for the success. And so he's telling them, stay focused on who you are in Christ. So if you read the whole book later, it's six chapters. The first three chapters are all about who they are, their identity in Christ, what it means to live as God's people, surrounded by rival powers, yet anchored in who they are. And a big part of that is the fact that abundance is linked to their identity. The last time I preached to you, I talked to you from John 10:10. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. But I have come that you may have Zoe life, God's life, and that you may have it more abundantly. Because we found out that the word abundant is a contextual word. It doesn't mean anything by itself. Abundant. What? Abundant grief, abundant drama. But abundant life. It means that there's a lot. We found out that that means life in profusion, that abundance is about what's pouring out. So it's not just flow, because flow can happen naturally, but a pour is intentional. And so when God pours it out, I want to just be in position to have it poured out on me. And so it's not a quantity. It's not something I stack up. It's something that I stand under. And I am standing soaked. I am drenched. It's running down to overflow. And so now we have. We understood that abundance as an amount of life. But here, when Paul writes about it, he's talking about a capacity, how much space we can have and fill with abundance, that capacity. And then he gives us exceedingly, abundantly, like he's trying to emphasize it. The word. There's no one English word that can translate for that. So that's why you get exceedingly, abundantly. Because he had the word abundance in Greece, Greek, which I'm not going to try to say anymore, and I try to say Hebrew words. But then he put two prefixes on the word. So first he put hyper. You know what hyper means up above. So he's like, it's hyper abundant. But then that didn't feel like enough. And so he added another word, ex, ex, hyper, Greek word, abundance, that meant it's pouring out of us over and over. And so the etymologist described this as stacking. He's stacking prefixes in order to try to emphasize how much abundance this is. In fact, I fought really hard against calling this message stacks on stacks. But I don't want Drewski to come for me. So I'm gonna call it make room for more. Glory to God. Make room for more. But he's. He's stacking abundance because he's like, there's so much of it. I want you to understand that he's able to do. He's able to stack on, stack on, stack the abundant things that he has for you. And you gotta recognize that because if you don't believe it, oh, it just sounds like a bunch of talk. But when you get that thing in your mind that he did that one time that prove that he is this God, I'm here to tell you prophetically, that's about to be the smaller thing from what God is going to do next. He is an eternal pour. It doesn't run out. It's how much can I catch? How much can I catch? And so when we go from this quality of life, this abundance, Zoe, to this divine capacity, I want to have the capacity to receive, perceive how much he's about to do. But let's get into our stance first. Go back to Ephesians 3, verse 14, because verse 20 is the end of the statement. And we all know that verse by heart. But what comes before it? What is our posture? Verse 14. For the Paul is speaking for this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. I taught you that abundance is also relational. And so here he is again, bringing us together, reminding us how our relationship with God and with each other, because I'm a member of a family, is part of this posture. So this is his prayer to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in your every inner man. This is the deepest part of you, your deepest feelings, the parts of your personality that were showing when you were in the womb, not how. What happened after you were born. That parts of you that are so engraved. I've shared this before when I was pregnant with my son. Very calm, he barely moved. Scared me to death. I'm a first time mom. I'm buying little baby monitors trying to listen to his heartbeat. And this is 97. So, you know, the technology was terrible, but I would worry because he wasn't moving around a lot. And so I started drinking a lot of extra sugary drinks. Y' all know I like my sugar, but I was drinking extra sugar trying to get him to move. And after all of that I jump around, he'd be like, I'm like, okay, he's in there and he is still like that 28 years later. Super chill. My daughter, Lordy never had to wonder if Olivia was alive. Olivia was alive and literally kicking, literally. You handprint, footprint. We never had to wonder. And she came out. And today, yet today she is the one who draws my prayers the most in the middle of the night. She ain't never stopped moving. I remember her in her high chair and she kicked the tray off. I said Jesus, because she was done and wanted to get down. Her heart is beautiful. She wasn't rebellious. But her body, she just moved. So that's inner man stuff that didn't have anything to do with how she was raised or what happened or, or him. It just they, they came here like that. And so that part of you that is the youest of you, that you would be strengthened by his might in your inner man, that first you have to expose that to God and invite him. See, sometimes we want God to stand right by us, but I don't know if I want them all up in my business. Invite him into your inner man. Verse 17. That Christ may dwell where in your hearts through faith. Remember that link between hearts and faith. Dwell in your hearts through faith, not your mind through faith. Faith doesn't come from here, it comes from here. Faith is awakened and maintained in a passion space. You gotta feel some way about this God to have faith in them. It's not a mental ascension. If it was, it would be torn down by data, by facts, by experiences. But nothing can separate me from the love of God. And so hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in what love may be able to comprehend. With who? All the saints. Again, we're in community that we have to get together to comprehend what is the width and the length and the depth and the height. We can't measure it, but we have to comprehend it together to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. I love this. I'll preach it another day. But it's like we get peace that passes understanding and love that passes knowledge. Another message that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. So what do we have here? We have submission. Paul is praying. I bow my knees. Then we have vulnerability. My inner man. I'm gonna open up everything. He sees it anyway and ask him to get into those spaces. A lot of times the prayers that we're praying and the asks that we're asking are centered around what we wanna maintain internally, what we wanna Feel and not feel, achieve and not achieve. But he said, I'm opening up vulnerably and I'm letting him get down in here and strengthen me with his might. Not what will strengthen me in my mind, but will strengthen with his might in my inner man. It's a good way to walk into a fast that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith. So I've got submission. Let's bow my knees, remember your name. It's not fame. Remember my name. Oh, come on. Y' all know I'm neurodivergent. I have those moments. You know what I'm saying? Holy family that you are named in his family, that you are strengthened internally, which means you're vulnerable. And that he may dwell in your hearts through faith. And then love, rooted and grounded in love with one another. So that means being connected with your brothers and sisters, coming into this room, praying for one another, worshiping together, offering together. And that would give us comprehension of how big God is and give us the love that passes knowledge. Once I get all that posture now, to him who is able to do that's really important. Make sure we have that posture, that submission, that vulnerability, that love and that connection, because it positions me for the exceedingly, abundantly. Make sure you have all four of those in place. Because sometimes we're looking for it, but we are not connected in the ways we need to be connected to this source. Now into that verse. Now unto him who is able to do, stack abundance above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. So we got ask, we got think, and we got power. Notice that this verse does not say the word can, but it's almost always quoted that way. We say that he is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can ask or think. It doesn't say that. It says all that we ask or think. So this is not a fantasy invitation, because I can have a fantasy. I could be like, hey, the Lord can give me a dream with a lottery number. It ain't gambling. If I know God said it, I'mma win the billion dollar prize. And that's how we go. I can imagine. I can imagine that. But do I really believe that that's likely? The difference between that can that we sometimes insert in there is that fantasy element versus me really being honest about what I actually asking, what I actually imagine. That word think means to imagine or to expect. So you can make up a story, but do you really expect that? Is it really where your heart desire is? So let's dig into that ask or think. Because that word ask is a heart word. Remember it said that you ask him to dwell in your heart through faith. So that ask is a heart word. It is our desires, the thing we want the most deeply. And sometimes we get in trouble with that. James, chapter four, verse three. You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your own pleasures. Too often what we desire is informing our ask rather than that ask having been submitted to God. Remember those steps. They were submitted. They were open and vulnerable to be changed and strengthened. They were connected to one another and they knew his love. See, being in that position, being in the presence of his love, will actually shape your desires. And so it will change your ask. The ask that's happening in James chapter four is me fighting for what I want. The verses that precede that say, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure, that war in your members? I want to be pleased by the things. I want the connection, I want the relationship, I want the job, I want the success, I want the award. And do I want some of those things? Absolutely. But if it is driving my prayer in a way that is not submitted to what God may want or the shape of that thing, then I will ask amiss. And I don't even ask until I tried everything else and it didn't work. That's why it says, you war, you kill, you still don't have. And then you finally ask him. But your desire, what's coming out of your heart, is not aligned with the love of God. It's still the love of this world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. That John writes that these are the things that define the world. Getting my needs met, that's lust of the flesh. Getting my needs met. Lust of the eyes, what I see, what I want to look like, who I want to be connected to. Pride of life, the glory of the world and the applause of the things. And my sense of power that those things actually drive us. They're built into these bodies and so they're warring against God. And so the love of God has to shape our ask. And that is important because your ask and your think or your imagination is hooked like heart and mind. Your mind is not going to be different than what's happening in your heart. Your mind is an expansion of what's happening in your heart. So when you are running through things in your mind or you're overthinking or you're looking for ideas that you can't seem to solve a problem. You can check the questions that your mind is asking and find the emotions that links all the questions. And you'll be back down at base because you don't ask questions that are not connected to where you are emotionally. Remember, we're gardens. The soil is the heart, the mind is the plant. The water that flows through that heart. The emotional space that we're in, the plant is shaped by that. And so you try to say, I'm going to set my emotions aside and just think through this. It's impossible, is impossible. All you're really saying is I'm gonna not name my emotions, I'm gonna ignore my emotions, I'm gonna disconnect from my body. Because body emotions are bodily experiences. And so you don't realize that you are coming from a place in your body, in your heart, in your emotional space that has not been fully changed by God's love. And so we have to get that love. But then we gonna go from there to our mind because it says ask or think. So we need the love to change our desires of what we ask for. But that word think also means to imagine or to accept expect. A lot of times expectation is the challenge is linked to hope. Because you can expect God to do something for him or for her in a way you don't expect it for yourself. Somebody can come to you and say, I'm sick today. Can you pray for me? I'm struggling, I'm afraid, I'm not sleeping well. Can you pray for me? And baby, you will pray heaven down. And you have every expectation that God is going to show up for them. You text them the next day, what did God do? I'm ready for the testimony. But when you can't sleep and when your body is sick and when your money is funny, you like you be in the prayer room stuttering. Because it is harder sometimes for us to have the same expectation for God to do something for us than we have for another person. Because our emotions and our bodies are not as stressed by their condition as ours. You can be a. A funeral home director sees deceased bodies every day, all day, without shedding a tear, until it's their grandma. Now their grandma is in the funeral home and they're. Because their body is responding to that, their emotion, their connection. And so we don't always respond to other people's things the way we respond to ours. And so that's why we can't just intellectualize this. We have to be aware of what we're asking for and what we are fearing. Because the love that shapes our ask is the opposite of fear. And so go to James 1. This shows you that link between your asking and your thinking. Start in verse 6. But let him ask in faith. Remember Ephesians 3 showed ask in heart and faith. Let him ask in faith with no doubting. Doubt happens in the heart. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will ask anything from the Lord. He is he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man. We went straight from heart to mind. When the heart has doubt, the mind becomes double double minded. Meaning I don't know whether to do this or whether I do that. I've given you this example before. It's like football. If I'm not running the right routes. It's not that God's not showing me something. It's not that nobody's throwing me the ball, but I gotta be in place to receive it. And if they throw the ball and I'm trying to decide where I'm supposed to be on the field, I'm moving on. They can't get throw the ball to me because I'm not where I should be to get it. So it's not that when it says no man shall receive anything from the Lord, it's not that God's up there like I ain't giving you nothing, but being double minded keeps me out of place. I'm not ready to receive it. I'm not sure if I should run over here, run over here and run over here to catch it, or should I run over here, run over here and run over here to catch it, ball already in the air. But because my heart, I'm afraid I don't know to play. And that's how I end up being double minded. And so this is why my ask and my think impacts my exceedingly abundantly. Because my ask and my think are linked. Romans, chapter 12, verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your what emotions are bodily experiences. We have bodily desires. So you have to present your bodily body. Your body is not bad. It is. God made it. But because of the fall, it don't be functioning right all the time. It be asking for stuff sometimes, stuff that we taught it to want. I'm not talking about y'. All. I'm talking about me and my nine pumps of vanilla syrup that I'm down to. I pray I make it to eight after the fast. Y' all pray for me. Y' all pray for me. But it says that we present our bodies a living sacrifice. That means this thing ain't gonna die. The sacrifice doesn't end, the sacrificial posture doesn't end. And so what I do to my body, Paul, also in another place in scripture, writes that I buffet my body like a boxer. I keep it under so that after having preached to others, I myself don't become a castaway. He's saying, I'm made just like you, and if I don't watch this body, I don't. He didn't say to hate it, he said to train it. Boxers don't hate their bodies. In fact, I think they probably love them very much. They're proud of their strength and their power and their force and their reflex. But they had to do some suffering and some training to get to that point. And so in order for me to make my body a living sacrifice, that's how Paul gives it to us. Train like a boxer. Don't give the body stuff that it's gonna just crave more of for no good reason. Exercise and do your sit ups and do all your stuff. You know what? It actually does matter because we learn to tell our bodies no. And that'd be the hardest thing to do sometimes, is to say no. So present your bodies, a living sacrifice that shapes your desires, your emotions, your attractions. Holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. This your minimum standard, child. I'm pressing for the high mark, the market of high calling, and this is not it. This is reasonable service. It feels like the market of high calling. But he's telling me this is my entry point, that when I present my body as a living sacrifice, I'm not conformed to this world and do not be conformed to this world. I need to be willing to be a living sacrifice in order to have the capacity to not be conformed to this world. But be you transformed by what? The renewing of your mind. So now my expectations, my thoughts. Thoughts can be new. They can be aligned with God, and then he can exceed even that. But the ask or think is on me that you may prove what is the good, that good and acceptable will of God. Your expectations will be transformed when you transform. Your heart, your body, your ask, your think will change. So we try to renew our minds too often from the outside in because we've understood them as something that we can just manipulate. And so you're like, I'm gonna renew my mind. I'm gonna renew my mind. I'm gonna pull up, I'm gonna keep every thought captive. And them thoughts just be like, I'm back and I have friends. Have you met my friends? They come back with a crowd. Why? Because you can't just. If you pull a plant out the ground, what happens when you pull a weed? It grows back. As long as the soil is good for it, it will grow again. And so we can't just change our mind by taking out some words and putting other words in does. That might be how we start. If you catch yourself spinning in a way that is not godly or not healthy for you, period. And I'm not just talking about not commit this sin, not commit this sin, but it's not good for your overall well being, your reflections on who you are and what you're capable of. When you catch that spinning, yes. Interrupt it, yes. Replace it with different words. But until you dig down into what's making you good ground for this problem, it will grow again. And so I need you to not be dismayed and let the enemy lie to you that you have not been delivered or you have not grown or you have not matured because some old thing grows back. That is not the case. It's just, this is a maintenance work. He didn't say present your body a sacrifice. It said a living sacrifice. That means I am constantly a maintenance work work. If I stop working on this mess, this mess will grow back. You have got to know what you're good for growing. When a weed grows in soil, it drops seeds. Those seeds can stay dormant for up to 40 years until an environment is right and clicks and then the climate brings them back. And so if you have been off 20 years, 10 years, 5 years, I haven't had this thought or this experience and it pops up. You are not under condemnation. It's just something shifted that made you fertile ground for that again. Some fear, some sadness, some grief. And your body wakes up some old stuff that it's reminded of by that, but that doesn't mean it's who you are. That is not your fundamental identity. But we all have liabilities in our bodies, so we can understand our liabilities and not hate ourselves. Because you can't hate yourself better. Hating yourself creates shame. And it'll keep you in the cycle. Okay? Amen. So let's go to second Timothy one. Because the thing that limits our capacity, it says, according to the power that works in you. So we have ask or think he's able to do exceedingly. Abundantly. Abundantly, Abundantly, abundantly. He's stacking those up beyond what you ask or think according to the power that works in you. So that actually is the pre existing factor. The power was there and then the ask or think. Does that make sense? Because he goes back around to the power. Where do we understand this power? Second Timothy 1, verse 6. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands family this year where the word of our lives is abundant. I need you to find every gift you have disconnected from, every talent you have ignored. Ignored every single thing that you know you can do but haven't had the chance to do that your grandmama told you you was good at when you was a little kid. I need you to go and gather your gifts and stir them up. It is an intentional reactivation. It is a rejection of the lie from the enemy that your gifts are not worthy or good enough or going to be used in this lifetime. Honey, as long as you got breath in your lungs, God is not finished with you yet. And he is not wasteful. He uses every everything that he gave. And so as long as you walking around here, he will make sure that it comes to pass. Go back and get your thing. Stir it up. You don't know how it's going to turn out. You don't know how God's going to use it. You don't know what it means. But see, we start asking and thinking about how and because those areas of our lives are limited by our past experiences and by our fear. Even when he does exceeding abundantly our capacity, it could be more. Don't leave your gifts behind. Some of you are moving in the gift that people have responded to the most, They like that one the best. But that doesn't mean it's all of who you are. You are more than the gift they respond to the most. But we think that must be it because it's working. Maybe it's just working while you get a chance to get to work on the other thing. Stir up the gift of God which is in you. And if you want some hands laid on you come to revival next week or two weeks we gonna be out here. But the point is you know that you've received that gift. And a lot of times we think that was for a different time in my life or that's not what God has for me to do. But he's telling us to stir up our gifts. Fear is what keeps us out of touch. With our gifts. And that's why verse seven says, for God has not given us a spirit of, but of what there's that power. So the power according to the power that's working in us. That's the same word power and it is opposite of fear. So fear is a limitation on the abundance capacity that we have. And I need God's power to alter that. And once I have the power, it says then and of love, which is linked to the ask and a sound mind which is linked to the think all that you ask or think. But the first thing you have to recognize is where fear is limiting. You trade that for the power because that will transform what you ask and change what you think. That's the answer. Now let me put on my therapist hat. We have a construct that we call the window of tolerance. Has anyone heard that phrase before? It's called the window of tolerance. This is how we describe our nervous systems, our body's capacity to handle extreme emotional experiences. And so imagine the window has a top and a bottom or two sides. And on this side is very high activation. It could be a lot of joy. And for some people that's scary. And so we run up and we say, I'm excited, but I don't want to get too excited because if I get too excited and it doesn't work out like that kind of joy actually scares you. It is your fear limit capacity for joy. It is at that point that anxiety comes instead. Then I'll be waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, what if it doesn't work out? Well, I don't know. I need to control it. Does anybody have a plan? Do we know exactly what's happening? How long will it be? What's God going to do? Are we there yet? And so when I'm at the top above my window of tolerance, I'm no longer able to be settled. I have left the classroom that Pastor Ev talked about. My abundance of peace gone. And at that level all I can do is be shaky. I'm having panic attacks, I'm heart palpitations. My anxiety is keeping me up. Waking up at 3 o' clock in the morning because you're out of your window of tolerance for what's going on around you. You'll be like, I can handle abc, but this XYZ got me up here and so you have no rest. You're above your window of tolerance and that will affect your ask. You with me then underneath or below the window of tolerance, we call that hypoarousal. The other One was hyper. You know what that means then hypoarousal. Under the window of tolerance is when I'm just shut down. I can't do nothing. It's not just a day of bedrotting, it's two, it's three. The only reason you get up is because you have to. I have to go to work or I have to do this meeting. But no, God forbid you work from home, you got your pajama pants on, your wig, and as soon as this meeting is over and you down again because your body has gone into like a freeze state, there's so much going on and your expectation is so low, you think your expectation is so low that you just don't move at all. It's like you're waiting for something else to happen outside of you to shift this because you can't move. That means you're outside of your window of tolerance. And God forbid somebody come to you with something or for something when you are above it or below it, you know that your response is not going to be the one you would choose when you're in the classroom, when you're at peace. And so that window of tolerance affects your ask and your think. And its boundaries are where you get to scared. So when he says I'm able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that you ask or think he can fill up the space that you have, that you can tolerate and then overflow. But I want more than that. So if this is all I got and you pour into this, it's going to be full and start overflowing real fast. So I did get my little two handfuls and now it's overflowing. Overflow means more than I can catch. So all the rest of it is just flowing out. But this is all I got. Now if I go like this, make a basket, I can do that. I'm gonna be able to catch that before it starts overflowing. That's the capacity problem. In order for us to walk into this exceedingly, abundantly above that what we ask or think, and to see that stacked on, stacked on stacked, I have to be willing to stretch my capacity. How do I do that? Isaiah 54. Enlarge the place of your tent. Isaiah 54, verse 2. The Bible doesn't give us a window, it gives it to us as a tent. Enlarge the place of your tent and let them stretch out. The curtains of your dwelling. Do not spare. Lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes, for you shall expand to the right and to the left and Your descendants, this is a generational shift, will inherit the nations and make the desolate cities inhabited. Do not fear. See fear again. For you will not be ashamed, neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame. I'm going to stop right there. Because what we fear is being embarrassed. What we fear is being humiliated. What we fear is if I stretch this open and I receive more, if I go out, if I do the thing, if I start the business, if I make the phone call, if I try to repair the relationship, if I put my art outside, then I'm going to be embarrassed. And so at the point where my fear stops me, shame comes in. And so you might be willing to share the book you wrote with the three people that love you the most, but you're not going to put no link to it on your website because then everybody might get it. Oh, I did this when I finished my PhD. I was so nervous about the industry pushing things that I put in it. I was so worried if somebody got it and read it without me standing right there to explain myself that they would reject it. And so I filed a two year embargo on my own dissertation so nobody could access it online. Because in my mind I would imagine somebody getting it and reading it being like, this don't make no sense. Who is this person? She's crazy. And they would be predisposed to reject it if I wasn't there to explain myself. Oh, I told myself it was wisdom at the time. I was like, oh no, this has to be protected. This is something God gave me. Has to be protected till the right time. Child, we can make up a story, can't we? But I was just scared about how the world will respond. And many elements of that dissertation are in the book the Garden Within. But I was too afraid to let it out at the time. And so my tent needed to be bigger. I didn't have the nervous system capacity to handle the experience of fear and shame. Enlarge the place of your tent. Okay, I don't got a lot of time. I'll give you this. Oh, I'm in trouble. Enlarge your tent. Increase your internal space. How does this translate to that? Bodily window of tolerance. Increase your capacity to stay present with your internal experience. Experience even when it's painful. Pause before you respond. Name your feelings and state without conclusion. My body is feeling anxious. My body is sad. Not a because or. That must mean just stay present with what your body is working through and slow down when you pray. Too often we come with conclusions to our prayer instead of just actually presenting it to God. All right. That is one way that we can start to enlarge our tent. Increase your internal space. Because when we can't sit in the presence internally of discomfort, we put our limits on our ask or think. We shrink where he can pour into us. And so he'll still do exceedingly, abundantly above that. But baby, I want his exceedingly, abundantly above to be. Be on my abundant. I want to make abundant space internally for him. And if I can't stay in an uncomfortable transition position, I limit what he's doing. I limit the powers space to work. The second thing it told us to do is lengthen our cords. That means to extend your relational reach. You gotta be open to more people. I'm gonna say it again. You gotta be open to more people. If you're one of my brothers and sisters who likes to say I'm not a people person. Been there, Sorry, not allowed. We were created to be in relationship. As soon as we receive Jesus, we become a part of the body. We were built to be with other people. I know, but he said it. So. Extending your relational reach, Lengthening your cords. The cords determine how far the the tent can stretch without tearing. And so you need to be able to stay connected across difference, across tension, across uncertainty. If as soon as the one that you needed to plug in with and now there's tension between y' all and your goal is to cut that wire. Because that kind of tension don't work for me. They not feel they must not be here for my life. This must not be what God has for me. They're disturbing my peace. And now your tent is snapping back. Oh, I'm almost finished. I'm almost finished. I'm almost finished. You have to be willing. Here's one way you can lengthen your cord this week. Engage one difficult conversation without withdrawing or attacking. Oh, be curious instead of certain. They did X, and I'm gonna ask them why they did it. Maybe they didn't do what you think they did. You're experiencing what you experience as the symptom, as the outcome, as the action, but you don't know what their mindset was. You don't know what. What was going on. Maybe it was an accident. Maybe they didn't mean to hurt you. Maybe they were. You don't understand what they were saying. Be curious instead of certain. And stay present emotionally in it. Don't go numb now you're out of your window again. And the goal is to stretch your capacity. Finally Third thing, strengthen the stakes. Stakes keep. Keep the tent from collapsing when the wind comes. You have to deepen your stability and your grounding. This is so body related. Take care of your body. Go to bed, eat food, vegetables in the coming days and drink water. Just those basic things will keep your body in a state to be able to handle more stress. You know, when you're tired, you're snappier. You know when you're sleepy, you're snappier. Okay. Regular rhythms, being still. Pay attention to your breath. And this is a big one for staying grounded. When you feel overwhelmed, remind yourself of who you are, who you are and who you serve. And don't always just go to the now. I am. I am beautiful. I am talented. I am. But describe it in terms of what you do. I am a writer, I finish books, I open businesses, I succeed, I handle my finances well. You have to remind yourself, talk in terms of action. Because when you go in terms of noun, I am this, I am that, I am perfect. I'm not perfect. That is too much. Your brain doesn't know, it will immediately start arguing with you. But if you say, I do these things, I can do hard things, I do do hard things. Then your brain starts trying to figure out how to do what you just said you do. And so be in motion. You don't have to be perfect, but you need to stay on the move. You need to stay on the move. I'm done. Hear this. Stand to your feet. I'm done. I'mma act up a little bit more at 11:30, but I gotta let y' all go now. Unto him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above what all that you ask, not can ask, ask or think above your desires and your expectations. Why is this message important at the top of the year? Not just because abundance is the word over our life, but yes, because right now you can bring together all of the work that you are doing in therapy, in the gym, in your relationships or plans and to do. You can bring that together in a way that lets you participate in the exceedingly, abundantly above. Because if I ask or think this much, he'll overflow that. But what if I expand my tent to ask or think this much? What if I can stay present with the pain of stretching? What if I can stay connected to ordained relationships when there is hardship in the relationship with? What if I am able to keep my body rested enough that it doesn't fight me and win? What if I expand my capacity? What if by the end of this Year I find out that something that bothered me in January, don't even turn my head in December. My God, that what offended me in February makes me throw my arms around somebody in November. What if I find out that what used to make my body hurt and lose my appetite, I have to realize I just walked through and it didn't change anything. Capacity, oh, the abundant, exceedingly, abundantly is on him. But amount of power that's working in me, it's on me to make room for that. That's the difference. That's the difference. Is there anybody in here who wants to see start the journey I described today to the exceedingly, abundantly a love that passes knowledge. You want to be able to stand in abundance even when things are not going well around you. And you heard me talking about this man named Jesus. Is there anybody in here who doesn't have a relationship with Jesus? You've never stopped in your adulthood and said, jesus, be in charge of my life. If you're in this room, just slip your hand up. I never want to leave without that. Is there anyone here today who wants to plug in with Jesus? Lock in with Jesus? I don't see a single hand. So I'm going to believe that all of the saved folks came to the nine o'. Clock. Glory to God. It matters. If you want to enlarge your tent this year, see your window of tolerance changed. Lift your hand. I want to pray for you. I'm in that. I'm in that. I'm in that. I'm in that. God, we're going to do everything we know how to do. I'm going to pray. I'm going to therapy. I'm going to the gym. I'm going to get some sleep and drink my water and all. Also, Father, let your spirit fall upon us in a fresh way that we would be strengthened with might in our inner man. We open up our inner man to you right now and we invite you in our deepest desires, our deepest fear. The places where shame has limited my capacity to allow your power to work in me. The capacity limitation is not on your power. It's on me. Me, Father. Help me to make room for more in this year, 2026, the most spiritually focused year of our lives. Guide us on how to make room for more. We want to spend every moment of every day of every week of every month of the whole year in a poor state, standing in what you are pouring out. And we don't want to get full yet. We want that overflow to take a minute because we have so much capacity to receive, help us to stir up our gifts. In the name of Jesus, I speak it over every gift. Under the sound of my voice, be stirred up. Come to their remembrance what they are capable of but have feared. Let them know that they should not fear and that they will not be ashamed. In Jesus name, Amen. Hallelujah.