God's So Extra | Hope Carpenter

Hello, guys. I am so excited about being with you tonight. So call your neighbors, call your friends. I got a word for you tonight. It's a little harsh. No, it's not harsh. You know, sometimes God's word hits us right in the face. It just, ugh, gets us in the heart because, you know, it's sharp. It cuts. It's supposed to chisel off all of those hard places and the stubborn places in our life. But you know what? God wants you free. God wants you delivered. God wants you blessed more than you do. So His Word is what is designed to show you how. It's our manual. It makes us better. So call somebody. I'm so glad you're here. And we're going to jump right into the Word. Ephesians 3. Get your Bible, get your smartphone. However you study God's word, we're going to do it right now, tonight. Ephesians 3. Ready? Now. To him who is able to do immeasurably more. Whoo. You just got to stop. Did you get that? Now. To him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can imagine, ask according to his power that is at work within us. So, number one, let's establish this right here, that God is able. There's no doubt about his ability. He's never lost a battle. He is undefeated. He's triumphant. Always has been, always will be. And no matter what you ask of him, no matter how great the need or desire, he can do more than that. Somebody needs to shout more than that. More than we ask or imagine. Listen, I can think of big things I don't know about you. And there have been huge mountains that have stood in my way over the years. And I've needed God in huge ways. In big ways. What about you? Listen, God can exceed my prayer request more than I can ask. He can bless me more than I ask, give me more than I ask or deserve. Your needs and desires haven't even challenged God. See, we think when we're asking God all these things. We think when we present to him our phone bill and our power bill and our mortgage and our house payment, and all these things that just encompass us and just encumber us. We think that we've challenged God. Your needs and desires haven't challenged God. And it's not just what I can ask, but it's what I can think. And God can exceed our minds, our wishes, our hopes, our dreams, our plans, the dream of a great marriage, the vision of a powerful ministry, the hopes for your children, the Dream of being financially, he can exceed all that. God always exceeds himself. Hope. How do you know? Scripture tells us, Abraham, God sent a lamb in place of his son Isaac for one person. And then remember the story of the death angel that was passing by? Then God said, use one lamb. The same lamb used the blood of one lamb. To do what? Not just to save a son, but to save a whole family. Then Moses was instructed to slay a lamb. For what? The sins of a whole nation. Then John the Baptist comes along and he says, behold the lamb that takes away the sins of the whole world. If God can exceed himself with a lamb, what do you think he can do with your life? Whoo. Vine's dictionary says this phrase, it says exceedingly, abundantly is the Greek word for super, ek parasosis. It means superabundantly, exceedingly more than is required. It expresses God's excessive benevolence toward us. Whoo. How many of you have children? I don't know about you, but listen, I love to bless my kids. It's just the natural heart of a parent for a child. And how much more does God want desire to lavish his love and his blessings on you? Luke 6:38 says, Good measure pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men give into your bosom. Romans 8:37 says, we are more than conquerors, not in ourselves, but through him. Romans 5:20 says, where sin abounds, grace did much more abound. See, he's the God of the above and beyond. He exceeds himself. Philippians 4:7 says, when we need peace, it's peace that what passes. It surpasses what you see in the natural. It surpasses what you feel in the natural peace that passes over all the hell you are walking through. You can lay down in sleep and sleep in peace, that knowing God's got you. God will even show up when you think he's late to do an exceeding work. Lazarus was dead, and God showed up four days later. All hope was lost. They were crying, mad at Jesus. He showed up to exceed all of the miracles that he had previously done. Listen. God wants to outdo himself in your life. Romans 15:13 says, we should be overflowing, bubbling over with what Hope. Great expectation of the future. Because we know the God we serve. He's a God of excessive power, excessive grace, excessive hope, excessive peace, excessive love and joy and forgiveness and mercy. Excessive means that which goes beyond the usual. It goes beyond the usual to be extraordinary, exorbitant, extravagant, overabundant, and just. Way too much. Whoo. Did you hear me? That is the God we. He's just way too much. Listen, I'm trying to build your faith tonight. Do you know the kind of God we serve? Shout, my God is way too much. Whoo. All right, we've talked about exceedingly. Now let's talk about the word abundantly. You know what that means? It means superabundant in quantity. That's the amount. And superior in quality. The type of somebody needs to say out loud, my God is extra. He's just extra. My God is so extra. John 10:10 says, I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly. And God never intended us just to get by, to be sad and defeated and sick in our bodies and in our emotions. 2nd Corinthians 9, 8. Paul writes, God is able to make all grace abound towards you that you always have sufficiency in all things. I got to read that again. I got to read it again. I got to talk about it again. 2nd Corinthians 9:8. God is able to make all grace abound towards you that you always have. Say. Always have all sufficiency. Say all sufficiency in how many things? In all things. I don't know how people can say that. God is not an extravagant God who wants to lavish good things on his people. Listen, that's his will for you. I'm not saying that everyone will be millionaires, but I'm saying where you are in life, your grace potential. God wants you to live in your exceedingly, abundantly, in your sphere of influence, in your household, in your job. He wants you to have exceedingly, abundantly. I love the Amplified Bible and the Amplified Bible says this and God is able. I don't know if you're ready for this verse. And God is able to make all grace, every favor and earthly blessing come to you in abundance so that you may always and under all circumstances. What? Yeah, when you're sick, when you don't have a job, when somebody walked out on you. So come on, let's say it again. Come on, let's say it again. God is able to make all grace, every favor and earthly blessing come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need, be self sufficient, possessing enough to require no aid or support, and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation. My God in heaven. That is God's desire for you and me. All of that is what God wants. But. There's a but according to. To the degree his power that is working in you, not Laying dormant in you his power that is working in you. Listen, we can't be full of the world, know more about what's going on on television than what? Than. Than the word of God and expect his power to be flowing in and through us. So my question is, do you want this exceeding abundant life? Yes. We all do. Right. But are you willing to cut out what needs to be cut out of your diet so that you can be filled to overflow with him? What are you filling yourself with? So whatever you sow to, the Word tells us whatever you sow to is what you will reap. If you sow to the flesh, filling your eyes with the world, filling your belly with the world, filling yourself with the cravings of the flesh. Flesh, that's what you'll reap. And if we sow to the flesh, the Word says we'll reap the corruption thereof, which is death. But if we sow to the Spirit, what is that? What does that even mean, if we sow to the spirit? Time spent with God reading his Word, which is life and a weapon forsaking, not the assembling together. That means coming to church. Yes. Even with a virus in the air, God's word is still God's word. Pursuing the things of God, even when it hurts. Gotta get up early, right? Gotta stay up late. That is when we will reap life and godliness. There is an abundant life that's available to us, but it just doesn't fall from the sky. It's not, you know, pixie dust. It doesn't just happen. It doesn't fall from the sky. It takes discipline. It takes structure. It takes commitment and even sacrifice. We have to receive God's abundant supply in our lives. Listen, have you ever had a battery in your phone just die? Well, that phone, it still has the capability. It still has the power, but not until it's plugged into the power outlet. It will not work if it's dead or. What do you have to do? You have to plug it back in into the source of the power. We've got to stay plugged in. So, what necessary changes do you need to make today to start walking in this abundant life, this exceedingly, abundantly? God's calling us higher. Listen, God is so extra. And he wants you to live in the extra too. It's there. The exceedingly abundant life is available to us all through scripture. I've already went through it tonight. He's provided it. He's already paid the price. Oh, he paid a terrible price. A high price that you might prosper and be in help, comma, even as your soul prospers to the same degree that your mind and your will and your emotions prosper. Whatever's going on in your mind, whatever's going on in your emotions, whatever's going on in your, in your choices will parallel the blessing of God in your life. I'm not just talking about money, talking about peace. I'm talking about joy. I'm talking about the exceedingly abundant life that he's called us to, the life that he paid a price for you to live. He did not pay this horrible price for you to live sick, for you to live depressed, for you to live defeated where you can't even pay to go out to eat on the weekend. That is not what God came and bled and died for. He wants you to prosper and be in health. But it's always to the same degree that your soul prospers. What choices are you making to prosper and be in health? What condition are your emotions in? Are you here up one day, down the next? Are you like an emotional roller coaster? Nobody knows which version of you they're going to run into. Come on, we got, we got to discipline ourselves. It's going to call sacrifice. You got to get up early, you got to stay up late. You got to push the plate back. You got to separate yourself. You got to make hard decisions. You got to ex people out of your life. You got to get with the people who feed you godliness and in faith, you can't be around the people that drag you down and cause you to sow to the flesh. If you sow to the flesh, you're going to reap the corruption thereof. If you sow to the spirit. It's life and godliness. It's really not that difficult. But there's so many of us who are living way beneath the price that God paid for us. He wants you to live this abundant life. I want you to live this abundant life. I want to live the abundant life. There's been so many things in my life, man, that I've just had to deal with, that I've had to X out of my life, that I've had to start doing years, years ago. I never was a reader. About 10 years ago, I committed that I was going to read X amount of books a week, that I was going to spend X amount of time reading a day. And I promise you that my life has shifted. My life has changed just by implementing reading into my life. What is God asking you to implement? What do you need to stop so that you can pick up a godly habit. You say, well, I just don't have time to pray. Well, how long are you on your phone? You know, the phone does keep track of how long we're on there. Go check it out. See how long you're on social media. See how long you're just wasting time that you could have spent with Jesus, man. He's got such an abundant life for us. Don't you know it grieves his heart when we're not walking in it, when we're not living it, when we're not experiencing it. He's sitting there, I can just imagine he's in heaven saying, man, the price I paid for them. And they're living so far beneath what I've called them to. I want to pray for you. I know you want it too. I want it to. But it does not just happen. I wish it did, man, I wish losing weight was as easy as gaining weight. Right? I do. Listen, it's harder to stay married than to get married. Can somebody say amen? Right? It's harder to maintain than it is to obtain. It requires discipline. It requires work. So, God, I just pray right now for every person under the sound of my voice who wants this abundant life, this exceedingly, abundantly, this extra life that you already have provided. Lord, I pray that I've stirred their faith tonight and I pray that they would make the necessary changes so that they can walk in this beautiful abundant life that you've called us to. I love you, Jesus. Now give us the grace, give us the strength to make the necessary changes so that we can glorify you on this earth. In Jesus name, Amen. I love you and I'll see you next week.