August 30, 2025 • 26 mins
Discovering the Power at Work in You, that's today's topic here on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. From the book of Ephesians chapter three, Pastor Mark shares today's message, about God being the most powerful force in the universe and through His Holy Spirit, that power can be inside of you.
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S1 (00:00):
Discovering the power at work in you. That's the topic
today on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe.
S2 (00:07):
Christ wants to fill your life and say your life
is mine. I'm comfortable here. I affect how you talk
and how you walk, and who you marry and how
you date and how you think of life. I want
to filter every part of your life. Why? Because I
am God in your life.
S1 (00:37):
Welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, president of
Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New Life
Community Church in Chicago. I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, today we're
going to be taking a look at the most powerful
force in the universe. And Mark, the amazing thing is
we have access to this power.
S3 (00:53):
We do, Wayne. And it's not nuclear power.
S1 (00:57):
No. It's greater.
S3 (00:58):
It is greater than that. Much greater. This is the
power of the Holy Spirit. And we're going to be
looking at a prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed for
the Ephesian believers. It's one of my favorite prayers in Scripture.
I pray it sometimes for my life. I pray it
over people's lives as well. But he asked in this
prayer that they may be strengthened with the power of
(01:23):
the Holy Spirit in the inner being.
S1 (01:25):
Yeah. If you're in a place where you can't open
your Bible, I hope you'll look at the words in
Ephesians chapter three here as Mark comes with today's message
the power at work in you.
S2 (01:36):
On August 6th, 1945.
S3 (01:40):
At precisely 8:15 a.m. in the morning, a uranium bomb
exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Within seconds, the.
S2 (01:54):
Entire.
S3 (01:55):
City lay in ruins. 70,000 people were dead and another
70,000 people were seriously injured. That one bomb had exploded
with a force that's greater than 20,000 tons of TNT.
(02:16):
Now that is power. At the time that that bomb exploded,
scientists thought they had discovered a force that could not
be equaled. Yet, since that, we've actually discovered forces that
are more powerful, that make that force seem like kids play.
(02:38):
We've discovered nuclear energy. The nuclear bombs today have much
greater power than even the atomic bomb had in those days.
And when we think of power, TNT, of dynamite, we
think of these devastating explosions. But yet that same power
(03:05):
that can be used to explode a city or devastate
a city is the same kind of power that can
be used to produce electricity and make a city run
and raise bridges and power up skyscrapers and provide the
(03:29):
energy that gives the heating and schools. It's the same power.
It's just one is a channeled power and another is
an unchanneled power. Explosive power. Today, I want to talk
to you about a power that's even greater than nuclear power.
(03:50):
A power that is at work within us. It's the
power of God. And the Apostle Paul is about to
speak about the power of God in this area. And
I want you to turn in your Bibles to Ephesians
chapter three. I'm going to begin reading in verse 14
of Ephesians chapter three, as the apostle Paul begins to
(04:14):
pray and talk to them about what it means to
have the power of God. So he says in verse 14,
for this reason I kneel before the father, from whom
the whole family in heaven and earth derives its name.
(04:34):
And I pray that out of his glorious riches he
may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your
inner being. This is a prayer. Verses 14 through 21
are a prayer, a prayer for power, a prayer that
the power that's in us will be unleashed. So now
(04:55):
notice Paul says, for this reason I kneel before the father.
There's a lot of places in Scripture where people kneel.
Some of you were raised in a tradition that every
Sunday you knelt to pray some prayers. And there's actually
a lot of places in Scripture where people knelt. The
Apostle Paul knelt, Peter knelt, the prophet Daniel knelt, Ezra knelt.
(05:19):
Solomon knelt in the dedication of the temple. When people
came to Jesus, they knelt to have requests from him.
If I were to ask you here, when's the last
time you actually knelt in a conversation? Most of you
probably haven't. It's been a long time since you knelt down, right?
Maybe when you asked your fiance to marry you, you
(05:42):
may have knelt. How many of you guys did that?
You got on one knee with the ring. Okay. All right.
A few of you did that. You know, you knelt down.
It's almost. What are you saying with that? You're kind
of begging. Please don't say no. Please don't. You know,
that's kind of. I beg of you, say yes. You're
kneeling down to say that it's it's kind of a
(06:02):
sign of humility of of of petitioning someone. But if
we see someone kneeling, we feel like they're really humbling themselves.
I heard of a guy that, uh, was went to
work bragging about that he had just had a fight,
and his wife ended up on her knees, and he
(06:24):
was like, uh, his friend asked him, so she ended
up underneath. Yeah, she was on her knees. You know,
that's how the fight ended up. And he said, well,
what was she saying? And he said, well, she was saying,
come out from under the bed, you coward. Come out
and finish this fight. So but usually when we're on
our knees, we're requesting something. And so the apostle Paul says,
(06:48):
I kneel, kneel before the father. Now, there are times
to kneel. And I think that we need to learn
what it means to, uh, sometimes take different postures in prayer, um,
folding our hands or kneeling or even being putting ourselves
(07:10):
prostrate before God. There are signs of submission. There are
signs of God. I'm really calling out to you. But
you know, you don't have to kneel to be praying, right? Uh,
in fact, I encourage you to learn to pray throughout
your entire day. And so, please, when you're driving, don't
try to put your hands together like this while you're driving.
(07:33):
Or please don't raise your hands. And even worse than that,
please don't close your eyes when you're driving and say, well,
I gotta close my eyes to pray. Uh, so you
you there's no natural, there's no special position that you
have to be in to prayer. But there's certain times
where we really want to humble ourselves before God and
we kneel or we throw ourselves on the floor before God.
(07:55):
And it's a physical sign of God. I'm calling out
to you in deep desperation and our posture becomes our prayer. Well,
Paul is kneeling before God the Father. He says, I
kneel before the father, from whom all of heaven, all
of the whole family in heaven and earth derives its name. Uh,
(08:19):
Paul is speaking about the fact that people that have
gone before and died and people that are currently living,
we are all connected as a family, and we have
one father, and he's the father of us all. Our
spiritual father. And we're connected to them. By the way,
I think this is a real important lesson. There are
(08:43):
churches in Chicago that worship in a way that's very
different from us. But if they are life giving churches
and have the Spirit of God inside of them, they're
part of our same family, their churches in Chicago that
have for our services, Uh, you know. And, um, there
(09:03):
are churches in Chicago that have 59.5 minute services, and
the entire prayers are read. The messages are read. Uh,
I preached at a church. In fact, we I swapped
pulpits with a pastor that actually preached here and did
a great job. Uh, Dan Meyer at Christ Church of Oakbrook.
(09:23):
I went and preached in Oakbrook, which is a very
far cry from the southwest side of Chicago and but
but but Christ Church of Oakbrook is more of a
high church place. And so they, um, the second service
pastor Myers, he wears a robe when he preaches. And
then when they read the word, they climb up to
(09:47):
this podium and you have to read the word from
the podium, and all the prayers are read, and their
service is exactly an hour long. Well, that's a whole
different culture than I'm used to. But here's what I know.
They are part of the family of God because the
gospel of Jesus Christ is preached there. There people are
(10:08):
coming to Christ, and so they are part of the
same family of God that we are a part of.
That's why I've taught you over and over that with
life giving churches in Chicago. We are not in competition,
but we are in cooperation. Now, not every church is
(10:29):
a life giving church. Some churches lead people astray. Some people,
some churches don't preach the truth. Some people, some churches
deny Jesus. And so I don't link my arms with
those churches and sing Kumbaya. I'm blessed and pray. I
pray that they would get straightened out in what they're doing.
But if their life giving church and they love the
Lord and they follow the Bible, I bless them, I
(10:51):
encourage them, and I see ourselves as part of the
same family. Paul says, I kneel before God the Father,
of whom his whole family in heaven and on earth
derives its name. Verse 16 I pray. And here's the
prayer that he he starts praying for these people. He says,
(11:14):
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may.
He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in
your inner being. So there's a couple of things about
this prayer that we need to understand. Number one, we
need to understand that he's praying that God would tap
(11:39):
in to his glorious riches. Here's the thing I want
you to understand about God. God is never, never in
a recession. Heaven is not touched by a crashing stock market.
There is no such thing as God being short on something.
(12:03):
He is not affected by our earthly recessions. He is
not limited when we are limited. He is unlimited in resources,
unlimited in power, unlimited in his ability. He has glorious riches.
(12:25):
And what Paul is saying is that God is tapping
into his glorious riches. He's tapping into this incredible resource
that he has, and he's taking some of this resource
of his glorious riches. And he takes it and he
shares it downward with us. Oh, some of you should
be encouraged by that.
S1 (12:51):
Discovering God's power at work in your life. This is
Bold steps weekend. You're listening to Mark Jobe. Today's message
comes from our series. When you believe everything changes. And
if you've missed any of the previous messages in this series,
you can catch up when you visit us online at bird-stamps.org. Well,
as Mark mentioned earlier, God has unlimited power and ability
(13:12):
and he wants to share that with us and we
want to share it with you. Our lives are made
to be in fellowship with one another. So if you'd
like to connect with us and other listeners just like you,
join us on our social media platforms. You'll find us
on Facebook and Instagram. And every day we hear from
listeners who leave comments on our pages telling us how
much of a difference this program makes in their daily lives.
(13:34):
Like this comment we received from a listener who said,
Mark Jobe. I simply turn on bold steps in the
car whenever I can. I cannot begin to express how
much the Lord has used your ministry in my life. Timely,
life giving words and godly perspectives that have impacted every
area of my life better than any professional counselor could
ever do. Well, thank you for reaching out. We look
(13:57):
forward to sharing more stories in the coming weeks. right now.
Let's get back to Mark jobs message on the power
at work in you.
S3 (14:08):
And by the way, some of you are nervous about
praying about you haven't learned that it's okay to pray
for your finances. Do you realize that Jesus taught us
to pray for our finances? The Lord's Prayer says, Our
Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy
(14:30):
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. Give us this day what? Our daily bread.
What do you think that prayer is? Do you think
he's praying for bagel and wheat bread? That's not what
give us our day. Their daily bread is. It's. Give
us today God the resources that we need today. Jesus
(14:53):
taught us to pray for resources that we need for today.
He taught us to pray that our needs would be met,
that we would have the resources that we need to operate.
And in other places in Scripture, he tells us to
pray that we would have enough not only to supply
our own needs, but enough to be able to give
(15:13):
to others as well. So God is not. It's not
God's will that you operate and live in scarcity. Now,
there are times in life where you may struggle financially.
The just and the unjust go through times like that.
So I never want you to feel like if you
(15:34):
are going through a rough financial time, that is because
you're less spiritual or don't have faith, or because there's
sin in your life. Because sometimes we go through those seasons,
whether we're doing good or bad. But I do believe
that the ultimate will of God in our life is
not that you live a life in scarcity, but that
you live a life in a place where you have
(15:56):
not only enough to meet your own needs, but you
have abundance to be able to give and that we ultimately,
as believers, not become simply recipients of other people, but
that we become resource people, that we become the people
that give, that we become the people that resource that
we become, the people that share the people of God
(16:18):
become those people. And so Paul says, out of God's
glorious riches, that he may strengthen you with power. Now
there's two words that are used there strengthen and power.
Both of these words in the Greek have to do
(16:38):
with power, but they have a different meaning to them.
The word strengthen means to become strong or to increase
in force or capability. The word for power in the
Greek is the word dunamis, demos where we get the
(17:00):
word dynamite from, and that has to do with strength, force, capability.
So what Paul is saying is, I pray that God,
out of his glorious riches, may help you increase the
power that's already present in your life. The power is there.
(17:25):
You have power. Oh, you have more power than what
you know you have. There is a power in your life,
a latent power in your life that makes nuclear power pale.
It's the power of the Holy Spirit. Now notice what
it says. That he may strengthen you with power. Through what?
(17:50):
Through his spirit in your inner being. What God is
trying to do is God is trying to take his
power that is already inside of you and increase that power.
That power has come to your life via the Holy Spirit,
capital S, and the Holy Spirit is strengthening what some
(18:15):
versions call the inner man or the spirit man. Every
person here has two man, so to speak. If you're
a woman, I guess two women, you have the inner
man and the outer man. The outer man is your
physical body. The inner man is your spiritual body. Do
(18:35):
you realize that you can be in shape in your
outer man, and way out of shape in your inner man?
You can be a £400 cut up in shape big
linebacker on in your outer man and in your inner man.
You can be this, this little weakling of a person
(19:00):
in your inner man, although your outer man may look
like it's strong. And on the other hand, you may
be a 90 year old frail little lady that you
think if you just sneeze at her, you're going to
break one of her bones. And she's, you know, in
the church with her little cane, just walking really carefully.
(19:20):
But you don't know that if you were to be
able to put on some glasses and see in the
spiritual realm, you just ran into a Hulk Hogan of
a woman. I mean, you just ran into a champion,
a powerful woman. Don't mess with her. I mean, she
may be frail on the outside, but inside she is
a warrior. She is powerful, has might. So never confuse
(19:45):
the outer man with the inner man. And what Paul
is saying is, I want you to strengthen your inner
man through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, I
taught you this before, but I just want to make
sure you understand this, because a lot of Christians, I think,
get this a little confused. If you are a believer
(20:06):
in Jesus Christ, a follower of Christ, you have the
Holy Spirit inside of you. There is no such thing
as a follower of Jesus Christ that does not possess
the spirit. You cannot be saved without the spirit. The
spirit is the agent of salvation. He is the agent
(20:27):
of regeneration. So you can't say, well, I'm a Christian,
I just don't have the spirit. No, if you're a Christian,
you have the spirit. Now, you may not be walking
in the power of the spirit. You may not have
manifested all the gifts of the spirit, but you do
have the spirit inside of you. Okay, so if you're
a believer here today, you have the Holy Spirit inside
(20:48):
of you. Now listen to what Paul says. He prays
three things. Verse 17, he prays that they'd be strengthened
in the power of the spirit. Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith. If you're taking notes, write this down.
(21:08):
Number one, they need power to embrace the life changing
presence of Christ Christ. He wants to fill your life
and say your life is mine. I affect how you
talk and how you walk and who you marry and
how you date. I want to filtrate every part of
your life. Why? Because I am God in your life.
S1 (21:33):
You're listening to Mark Jobe in a message he titled
The Power at Work in You. If you joined us late.
And if you'd like to hear this message again, or
if you'd like to share today's message with a friend
who might need to hear it, you can do that
online at boldsystems.org. You can also ask our Bible teacher,
Mark Jobe, a question or request our current bold step gift.
(21:53):
And it's the final weekend to request the book called
Moving Forward After Messing up by Doctor Chris Rappaccini. Well, Mark,
let's take a few moments and introduce the author of
our Bold step gift moving forward. After messing up. It's
Chris Rappaccini with us here now.
S3 (22:07):
Yeah. So I've known Chris for quite a few years.
He was a professor here at Moody Bible Institute and, uh,
just a great.
S4 (22:14):
Guy with a good ministry. And I'm so happy that
he wrote this book called Moving Forward. After messing Up.
And Chris, I wanted to ask you, you talk about
four specific steps that people should take after they've messed up.
Can you walk us through that a little bit? Sure.
S3 (22:32):
Well, real quickly.
S5 (22:33):
I think the first thing is to find a support group,
find people that are on your team that's so important.
You don't want to go through things in isolation. I mean,
Covid taught us that, right? We need community. We need people. Yeah.
And then I think we need to set some goals,
some personal plans. What are you going to do personally
to put one foot in front of the other, to
move forward? And then this could also be one of
(22:56):
the hardest things you have to mend those broken relationships.
Because if you've messed up, some relationships have been broken.
And so I give you some tips and tricks on
how to do that. And then finally, and this is
really important too, is be an example for other people.
You don't know how your story can affect and change
other people's future. So I think if you can do
those things, or at least a few of those things,
(23:18):
you're on the right path.
S4 (23:20):
You know, I pastor in the city of Chicago, there's
a lot of people coming out of addiction background, and
oftentimes they'll go to some sort of recovery program or
12 step program. How does this interface with that?
S5 (23:33):
That's a great question. This is somewhat similar and I
love those programs. Those are great. But what I tried
to do is put a lot more scripture into the
story of recovery. And how do we recover together as
not just how does God view us, but how does
our community view us? And so really, if you have
a ministry of addiction recovery that's meeting in a group,
that's a good place that this book can be used
(23:56):
because there's discussion questions, reflection questions After each chapter, there's
a leader's guide because like I said, that first step
is reading and doing it in community with support group
is crucial.
S4 (24:08):
Love it.
S1 (24:08):
Thank you Chris. We're looking forward to getting a copy
of this book into the hands of our listeners.
S5 (24:12):
Well, thank you again.
S1 (24:13):
It's called Moving Forward After Messing Up and it's yours
with a gift of any amount to support this ministry.
Just send us your financial gift and request in the
mail when you write to us at bold steps. 820
North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Now, it may
be easier and more convenient to give and request the
(24:34):
book by calling 800 D.L. Moody. Again, that's (800)Â 356-6639 or
donate online and request the book when you go to boldsystems.org.
And don't forget you can hear Mark's bold and passionate
teaching anywhere you go when you download the app to
your favorite smart device. Just look for our Bold Steps
(24:55):
app in your app store and learn more by visiting
bold steps. Now, before we close today, let me remind
you to sign up for our weekly email devotional, The
Bold Stepper Weekly. We'd love for you to join with
your fellow listeners who are starting their week off right
with a behind the scenes look at the topics on
Mark's heart and mind. You can also catch up on
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(25:18):
delivered automatically to your inbox every Monday morning faithfully, so
sign up today at Bold Steps. I'm Wayne Shepard that's
all the time we have for now, but join us
again next time when Mark concludes this message on the
power at work in you. It's from our series. When
you believe everything changes and you can hear it right
here on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Bold Steps
(25:42):
Weekend is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of
Moody Bible Institute.
Discovering the power at work in you. That's the topic
today on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe.
S2 (00:07):
Christ wants to fill your life and say your life
is mine. I'm comfortable here. I affect how you talk
and how you walk, and who you marry and how
you date and how you think of life. I want
to filter every part of your life. Why? Because I
am God in your life.
S1 (00:37):
Welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, president of
Moody Bible Institute and the senior pastor of New Life
Community Church in Chicago. I'm Wayne Shepherd. Well, today we're
going to be taking a look at the most powerful
force in the universe. And Mark, the amazing thing is
we have access to this power.
S3 (00:53):
We do, Wayne. And it's not nuclear power.
S1 (00:57):
No. It's greater.
S3 (00:58):
It is greater than that. Much greater. This is the
power of the Holy Spirit. And we're going to be
looking at a prayer that the Apostle Paul prayed for
the Ephesian believers. It's one of my favorite prayers in Scripture.
I pray it sometimes for my life. I pray it
over people's lives as well. But he asked in this
prayer that they may be strengthened with the power of
(01:23):
the Holy Spirit in the inner being.
S1 (01:25):
Yeah. If you're in a place where you can't open
your Bible, I hope you'll look at the words in
Ephesians chapter three here as Mark comes with today's message
the power at work in you.
S2 (01:36):
On August 6th, 1945.
S3 (01:40):
At precisely 8:15 a.m. in the morning, a uranium bomb
exploded over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Within seconds, the.
S2 (01:54):
Entire.
S3 (01:55):
City lay in ruins. 70,000 people were dead and another
70,000 people were seriously injured. That one bomb had exploded
with a force that's greater than 20,000 tons of TNT.
(02:16):
Now that is power. At the time that that bomb exploded,
scientists thought they had discovered a force that could not
be equaled. Yet, since that, we've actually discovered forces that
are more powerful, that make that force seem like kids play.
(02:38):
We've discovered nuclear energy. The nuclear bombs today have much
greater power than even the atomic bomb had in those days.
And when we think of power, TNT, of dynamite, we
think of these devastating explosions. But yet that same power
(03:05):
that can be used to explode a city or devastate
a city is the same kind of power that can
be used to produce electricity and make a city run
and raise bridges and power up skyscrapers and provide the
(03:29):
energy that gives the heating and schools. It's the same power.
It's just one is a channeled power and another is
an unchanneled power. Explosive power. Today, I want to talk
to you about a power that's even greater than nuclear power.
(03:50):
A power that is at work within us. It's the
power of God. And the Apostle Paul is about to
speak about the power of God in this area. And
I want you to turn in your Bibles to Ephesians
chapter three. I'm going to begin reading in verse 14
of Ephesians chapter three, as the apostle Paul begins to
(04:14):
pray and talk to them about what it means to
have the power of God. So he says in verse 14,
for this reason I kneel before the father, from whom
the whole family in heaven and earth derives its name.
(04:34):
And I pray that out of his glorious riches he
may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your
inner being. This is a prayer. Verses 14 through 21
are a prayer, a prayer for power, a prayer that
the power that's in us will be unleashed. So now
(04:55):
notice Paul says, for this reason I kneel before the father.
There's a lot of places in Scripture where people kneel.
Some of you were raised in a tradition that every
Sunday you knelt to pray some prayers. And there's actually
a lot of places in Scripture where people knelt. The
Apostle Paul knelt, Peter knelt, the prophet Daniel knelt, Ezra knelt.
(05:19):
Solomon knelt in the dedication of the temple. When people
came to Jesus, they knelt to have requests from him.
If I were to ask you here, when's the last
time you actually knelt in a conversation? Most of you
probably haven't. It's been a long time since you knelt down, right?
Maybe when you asked your fiance to marry you, you
(05:42):
may have knelt. How many of you guys did that?
You got on one knee with the ring. Okay. All right.
A few of you did that. You know, you knelt down.
It's almost. What are you saying with that? You're kind
of begging. Please don't say no. Please don't. You know,
that's kind of. I beg of you, say yes. You're
kneeling down to say that it's it's kind of a
(06:02):
sign of humility of of of petitioning someone. But if
we see someone kneeling, we feel like they're really humbling themselves.
I heard of a guy that, uh, was went to
work bragging about that he had just had a fight,
and his wife ended up on her knees, and he
(06:24):
was like, uh, his friend asked him, so she ended
up underneath. Yeah, she was on her knees. You know,
that's how the fight ended up. And he said, well,
what was she saying? And he said, well, she was saying,
come out from under the bed, you coward. Come out
and finish this fight. So but usually when we're on
our knees, we're requesting something. And so the apostle Paul says,
(06:48):
I kneel, kneel before the father. Now, there are times
to kneel. And I think that we need to learn
what it means to, uh, sometimes take different postures in prayer, um,
folding our hands or kneeling or even being putting ourselves
(07:10):
prostrate before God. There are signs of submission. There are
signs of God. I'm really calling out to you. But
you know, you don't have to kneel to be praying, right? Uh,
in fact, I encourage you to learn to pray throughout
your entire day. And so, please, when you're driving, don't
try to put your hands together like this while you're driving.
(07:33):
Or please don't raise your hands. And even worse than that,
please don't close your eyes when you're driving and say, well,
I gotta close my eyes to pray. Uh, so you
you there's no natural, there's no special position that you
have to be in to prayer. But there's certain times
where we really want to humble ourselves before God and
we kneel or we throw ourselves on the floor before God.
(07:55):
And it's a physical sign of God. I'm calling out
to you in deep desperation and our posture becomes our prayer. Well,
Paul is kneeling before God the Father. He says, I
kneel before the father, from whom all of heaven, all
of the whole family in heaven and earth derives its name. Uh,
(08:19):
Paul is speaking about the fact that people that have
gone before and died and people that are currently living,
we are all connected as a family, and we have
one father, and he's the father of us all. Our
spiritual father. And we're connected to them. By the way,
I think this is a real important lesson. There are
(08:43):
churches in Chicago that worship in a way that's very
different from us. But if they are life giving churches
and have the Spirit of God inside of them, they're
part of our same family, their churches in Chicago that
have for our services, Uh, you know. And, um, there
(09:03):
are churches in Chicago that have 59.5 minute services, and
the entire prayers are read. The messages are read. Uh,
I preached at a church. In fact, we I swapped
pulpits with a pastor that actually preached here and did
a great job. Uh, Dan Meyer at Christ Church of Oakbrook.
(09:23):
I went and preached in Oakbrook, which is a very
far cry from the southwest side of Chicago and but
but but Christ Church of Oakbrook is more of a
high church place. And so they, um, the second service
pastor Myers, he wears a robe when he preaches. And
then when they read the word, they climb up to
(09:47):
this podium and you have to read the word from
the podium, and all the prayers are read, and their
service is exactly an hour long. Well, that's a whole
different culture than I'm used to. But here's what I know.
They are part of the family of God because the
gospel of Jesus Christ is preached there. There people are
(10:08):
coming to Christ, and so they are part of the
same family of God that we are a part of.
That's why I've taught you over and over that with
life giving churches in Chicago. We are not in competition,
but we are in cooperation. Now, not every church is
(10:29):
a life giving church. Some churches lead people astray. Some people,
some churches don't preach the truth. Some people, some churches
deny Jesus. And so I don't link my arms with
those churches and sing Kumbaya. I'm blessed and pray. I
pray that they would get straightened out in what they're doing.
But if their life giving church and they love the
Lord and they follow the Bible, I bless them, I
(10:51):
encourage them, and I see ourselves as part of the
same family. Paul says, I kneel before God the Father,
of whom his whole family in heaven and on earth
derives its name. Verse 16 I pray. And here's the
prayer that he he starts praying for these people. He says,
(11:14):
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may.
He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in
your inner being. So there's a couple of things about
this prayer that we need to understand. Number one, we
need to understand that he's praying that God would tap
(11:39):
in to his glorious riches. Here's the thing I want
you to understand about God. God is never, never in
a recession. Heaven is not touched by a crashing stock market.
There is no such thing as God being short on something.
(12:03):
He is not affected by our earthly recessions. He is
not limited when we are limited. He is unlimited in resources,
unlimited in power, unlimited in his ability. He has glorious riches.
(12:25):
And what Paul is saying is that God is tapping
into his glorious riches. He's tapping into this incredible resource
that he has, and he's taking some of this resource
of his glorious riches. And he takes it and he
shares it downward with us. Oh, some of you should
be encouraged by that.
S1 (12:51):
Discovering God's power at work in your life. This is
Bold steps weekend. You're listening to Mark Jobe. Today's message
comes from our series. When you believe everything changes. And
if you've missed any of the previous messages in this series,
you can catch up when you visit us online at bird-stamps.org. Well,
as Mark mentioned earlier, God has unlimited power and ability
(13:12):
and he wants to share that with us and we
want to share it with you. Our lives are made
to be in fellowship with one another. So if you'd
like to connect with us and other listeners just like you,
join us on our social media platforms. You'll find us
on Facebook and Instagram. And every day we hear from
listeners who leave comments on our pages telling us how
much of a difference this program makes in their daily lives.
(13:34):
Like this comment we received from a listener who said,
Mark Jobe. I simply turn on bold steps in the
car whenever I can. I cannot begin to express how
much the Lord has used your ministry in my life. Timely,
life giving words and godly perspectives that have impacted every
area of my life better than any professional counselor could
ever do. Well, thank you for reaching out. We look
(13:57):
forward to sharing more stories in the coming weeks. right now.
Let's get back to Mark jobs message on the power
at work in you.
S3 (14:08):
And by the way, some of you are nervous about
praying about you haven't learned that it's okay to pray
for your finances. Do you realize that Jesus taught us
to pray for our finances? The Lord's Prayer says, Our
Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy
(14:30):
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven. Give us this day what? Our daily bread.
What do you think that prayer is? Do you think
he's praying for bagel and wheat bread? That's not what
give us our day. Their daily bread is. It's. Give
us today God the resources that we need today. Jesus
(14:53):
taught us to pray for resources that we need for today.
He taught us to pray that our needs would be met,
that we would have the resources that we need to operate.
And in other places in Scripture, he tells us to
pray that we would have enough not only to supply
our own needs, but enough to be able to give
(15:13):
to others as well. So God is not. It's not
God's will that you operate and live in scarcity. Now,
there are times in life where you may struggle financially.
The just and the unjust go through times like that.
So I never want you to feel like if you
(15:34):
are going through a rough financial time, that is because
you're less spiritual or don't have faith, or because there's
sin in your life. Because sometimes we go through those seasons,
whether we're doing good or bad. But I do believe
that the ultimate will of God in our life is
not that you live a life in scarcity, but that
you live a life in a place where you have
(15:56):
not only enough to meet your own needs, but you
have abundance to be able to give and that we ultimately,
as believers, not become simply recipients of other people, but
that we become resource people, that we become the people
that give, that we become the people that resource that
we become, the people that share the people of God
(16:18):
become those people. And so Paul says, out of God's
glorious riches, that he may strengthen you with power. Now
there's two words that are used there strengthen and power.
Both of these words in the Greek have to do
(16:38):
with power, but they have a different meaning to them.
The word strengthen means to become strong or to increase
in force or capability. The word for power in the
Greek is the word dunamis, demos where we get the
(17:00):
word dynamite from, and that has to do with strength, force, capability.
So what Paul is saying is, I pray that God,
out of his glorious riches, may help you increase the
power that's already present in your life. The power is there.
(17:25):
You have power. Oh, you have more power than what
you know you have. There is a power in your life,
a latent power in your life that makes nuclear power pale.
It's the power of the Holy Spirit. Now notice what
it says. That he may strengthen you with power. Through what?
(17:50):
Through his spirit in your inner being. What God is
trying to do is God is trying to take his
power that is already inside of you and increase that power.
That power has come to your life via the Holy Spirit,
capital S, and the Holy Spirit is strengthening what some
(18:15):
versions call the inner man or the spirit man. Every
person here has two man, so to speak. If you're
a woman, I guess two women, you have the inner
man and the outer man. The outer man is your
physical body. The inner man is your spiritual body. Do
(18:35):
you realize that you can be in shape in your
outer man, and way out of shape in your inner man?
You can be a £400 cut up in shape big
linebacker on in your outer man and in your inner man.
You can be this, this little weakling of a person
(19:00):
in your inner man, although your outer man may look
like it's strong. And on the other hand, you may
be a 90 year old frail little lady that you
think if you just sneeze at her, you're going to
break one of her bones. And she's, you know, in
the church with her little cane, just walking really carefully.
(19:20):
But you don't know that if you were to be
able to put on some glasses and see in the
spiritual realm, you just ran into a Hulk Hogan of
a woman. I mean, you just ran into a champion,
a powerful woman. Don't mess with her. I mean, she
may be frail on the outside, but inside she is
a warrior. She is powerful, has might. So never confuse
(19:45):
the outer man with the inner man. And what Paul
is saying is, I want you to strengthen your inner
man through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, I
taught you this before, but I just want to make
sure you understand this, because a lot of Christians, I think,
get this a little confused. If you are a believer
(20:06):
in Jesus Christ, a follower of Christ, you have the
Holy Spirit inside of you. There is no such thing
as a follower of Jesus Christ that does not possess
the spirit. You cannot be saved without the spirit. The
spirit is the agent of salvation. He is the agent
(20:27):
of regeneration. So you can't say, well, I'm a Christian,
I just don't have the spirit. No, if you're a Christian,
you have the spirit. Now, you may not be walking
in the power of the spirit. You may not have
manifested all the gifts of the spirit, but you do
have the spirit inside of you. Okay, so if you're
a believer here today, you have the Holy Spirit inside
(20:48):
of you. Now listen to what Paul says. He prays
three things. Verse 17, he prays that they'd be strengthened
in the power of the spirit. Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith. If you're taking notes, write this down.
(21:08):
Number one, they need power to embrace the life changing
presence of Christ Christ. He wants to fill your life
and say your life is mine. I affect how you
talk and how you walk and who you marry and
how you date. I want to filtrate every part of
your life. Why? Because I am God in your life.
S1 (21:33):
You're listening to Mark Jobe in a message he titled
The Power at Work in You. If you joined us late.
And if you'd like to hear this message again, or
if you'd like to share today's message with a friend
who might need to hear it, you can do that
online at boldsystems.org. You can also ask our Bible teacher,
Mark Jobe, a question or request our current bold step gift.
(21:53):
And it's the final weekend to request the book called
Moving Forward After Messing up by Doctor Chris Rappaccini. Well, Mark,
let's take a few moments and introduce the author of
our Bold step gift moving forward. After messing up. It's
Chris Rappaccini with us here now.
S3 (22:07):
Yeah. So I've known Chris for quite a few years.
He was a professor here at Moody Bible Institute and, uh,
just a great.
S4 (22:14):
Guy with a good ministry. And I'm so happy that
he wrote this book called Moving Forward. After messing Up.
And Chris, I wanted to ask you, you talk about
four specific steps that people should take after they've messed up.
Can you walk us through that a little bit? Sure.
S3 (22:32):
Well, real quickly.
S5 (22:33):
I think the first thing is to find a support group,
find people that are on your team that's so important.
You don't want to go through things in isolation. I mean,
Covid taught us that, right? We need community. We need people. Yeah.
And then I think we need to set some goals,
some personal plans. What are you going to do personally
to put one foot in front of the other, to
move forward? And then this could also be one of
(22:56):
the hardest things you have to mend those broken relationships.
Because if you've messed up, some relationships have been broken.
And so I give you some tips and tricks on
how to do that. And then finally, and this is
really important too, is be an example for other people.
You don't know how your story can affect and change
other people's future. So I think if you can do
those things, or at least a few of those things,
(23:18):
you're on the right path.
S4 (23:20):
You know, I pastor in the city of Chicago, there's
a lot of people coming out of addiction background, and
oftentimes they'll go to some sort of recovery program or
12 step program. How does this interface with that?
S5 (23:33):
That's a great question. This is somewhat similar and I
love those programs. Those are great. But what I tried
to do is put a lot more scripture into the
story of recovery. And how do we recover together as
not just how does God view us, but how does
our community view us? And so really, if you have
a ministry of addiction recovery that's meeting in a group,
that's a good place that this book can be used
(23:56):
because there's discussion questions, reflection questions After each chapter, there's
a leader's guide because like I said, that first step
is reading and doing it in community with support group
is crucial.
S4 (24:08):
Love it.
S1 (24:08):
Thank you Chris. We're looking forward to getting a copy
of this book into the hands of our listeners.
S5 (24:12):
Well, thank you again.
S1 (24:13):
It's called Moving Forward After Messing Up and it's yours
with a gift of any amount to support this ministry.
Just send us your financial gift and request in the
mail when you write to us at bold steps. 820
North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. Now, it may
be easier and more convenient to give and request the
(24:34):
book by calling 800 D.L. Moody. Again, that's (800)Â 356-6639 or
donate online and request the book when you go to boldsystems.org.
And don't forget you can hear Mark's bold and passionate
teaching anywhere you go when you download the app to
your favorite smart device. Just look for our Bold Steps
(24:55):
app in your app store and learn more by visiting
bold steps. Now, before we close today, let me remind
you to sign up for our weekly email devotional, The
Bold Stepper Weekly. We'd love for you to join with
your fellow listeners who are starting their week off right
with a behind the scenes look at the topics on
Mark's heart and mind. You can also catch up on
highlights from the previous week. The Bold Stepper Weekly is free,
(25:18):
delivered automatically to your inbox every Monday morning faithfully, so
sign up today at Bold Steps. I'm Wayne Shepard that's
all the time we have for now, but join us
again next time when Mark concludes this message on the
power at work in you. It's from our series. When
you believe everything changes and you can hear it right
here on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Bold Steps
(25:42):
Weekend is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of
Moody Bible Institute.
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