Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical
words that have great significance to our faith.
The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where
once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are
familiar with in scripture.
So come along with me.
Let's study the Word of the week.
Pastor Josh here with another Word of the Week.
And we have been studying the names of God for the past handful
of sessions here on this podcast.
And this will be the last name of God that we're going to be studying
on this round of the Word of the Week.
It's been a great study, learning about who God is and what
he has done for us and his character.
And I think one of the aspects of our spiritual growth would be
to know God in a deeper way.
And I know that sounds somewhat cliche, but I know that
many of us have a surface understanding of who God is, but
the deeper that we understand him, deeper our relationship can
grow.
And so we're going to come to our last name that we're going to
study in this series, and that is the name El Gabor.
El meaning God, Gabor meaning mighty.
And we find this name of God in a passage of scripture that is
linked to in many cases.
We link this to Christmas time when we talk about Jesus coming to
this earth.
And it's Isaiah 9, verse 6.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.
We know that is specifically talking about the Messiah.
This is a messianic prophecy, a prophecy foretelling the coming
of Jesus.
Jesus.
And so this child will be born.
And what will be the elements of this child's life?
Well, the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall
be called Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God, El Gabor.
The mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of
Peace.
And so this name describes Jesus and.
And it's in that prophetic element there in Isaiah.
It speaks of galaxy God, in this case, Jesus, who is God as a
powerful, mighty warrior.
All powerful.
And as we've been studying the words of the week, we've studied
the term omnipotent, meaning all powerful.
All powerful.
Now we know that God is powerful.
And, you know, sometimes we liken that to the power that we see
here on this earth.
Maybe someone has maybe used an example of a mighty waterfall
like that.
God is powerful like a mighty waterfall.
If you've ever been to a big waterfall, I know when I Went to
Niagara Falls.
It was such an awe inspiring moment to see that much power of
that water rushing over.
But that's limited.
We think of like maybe a powerful athlete or a powerful world
leader, though there is that human element of power and those
individuals nothing compares to the all powerful nature of God.
He's omnipotent and, and we could go to Scripture after Scripture
that speaks to his power.
But we know that as God is all powerful, he will accomplish his
plan, his purpose, his will.
In this world.
The will of God is that all should come to repentance.
God wants those to come to Him.
But in his love and in his grace, he extends the choice for
people to respond to him or to reject Him.
But don't take that as a weakness in, in God because He is
all powerful and he has promised that there would be, that
there will be a judgment upon those who reject him.
And so, so as God's enemies turn against him, they will be faced
with judgment, they will be faced with his power.
I think of a passage of Scripture in the book of Revelation
speaking of, of that final judgment.
Revelation, chapter 19, verse 15 says, and out of his mouth goeth
a sharp sword that with it it should smite the nations, and he
shall rule them with a rod of iron.
I mean that's speaking of a power.
And he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty
God.
And so I, I, I think about his power, his omnipotence, and I think
about the, in comparison, my lack of power at, at any point in
time, if I feel that I have any sort of power, I need to compare
that to the power of God.
And, and in the Scriptures it speaks of the contrast between our,
our, our power versus God's power, or should I say our weakness
in comparison to God's power.
In a passage of Scripture that comes to mind when I think about
the power of God and how it relates to us as believers would
be in Second Corinthians, chapter 12.
If you note this passage of Scripture, Paul is speaking here
and he mentions a thorn in his flesh, a thorn in his side.
And he says that this is holding him back.
It's, it's hurting him.
And, and there's a lot of speculation about what that thorn
would be.
But nonetheless we realize that God turns around and says to
Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength.
This is verse 9 of 2 Corinthians, chapter 12.
For my strength, God's strength, His omnipotence, his power.
If you look at that speaking of of words.
If you look at 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 9, and you look
at that word strength or, or you could say power.
It's, it's the word that we get, dynamite from Dunamis.
And it's, it's that explosive power, not limited in any way.
So, so God says it's for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
And so in, in weakness, in our weakness, in our limitations, that
is where we're able to find the power of God in our lives.
That is where we're able to tap into God's nature.
Not.
Not in the fact that we become Gods.
There's no, no chance of that.
But we can do things that God calls us to do, and we can do things
that would be impossible outside of the call of God in our
life.
The power of God in our life.
And that, that makes me think of another verse that no doubt you've
heard, Philippians, chapter 4, verse 13.
As, as Paul is speaking here, he's.
He's talking about difficulties.
And you read in context the verse right before that talks about
being hungry and suffering need and, and all of the struggles
that he might have faced.
And then he says, I can do all things through Christ which maintaineth
me.
It doesn't mean that he can do whatever he wants to do and God's
just going to grant him that power.
But it's as God calls us to do things in our life, as he calls us
to go through times of plenty, in times of emptiness or times of
weakness and times of strength, that we were able to do
it because of the power of God.
So I can do all things through Christ, not through myself, through
Christ which strengtheneth me.
And so it's the strength of God.
We go back to El Gabor.
The strength of our God, the mighty God then is imparted to us.
And we're able to utilize the power of God in things that would
seem impossible.
And we even know that in the scriptures it tells us that nothing's
impossible with God.
So, so if we think that we're facing an impossible task and whatever
that task might be in your life, I don't know.
I know that in my life I face things that I said, you know, this
is impossible.
Okay, I've even literally said that this is impossible.
I cannot do this.
And, and that would be right.
I cannot do that outside of the strength of God.
And so that's when we call out to God and ask him to be that one
who is our mighty God, El Gabor.
And so I, I Think about that in areas of weakness.
I think about that areas.
I think about that in areas of pain and suffering that God is powerful
enough to overcome what you might be facing in your life.
And there's so many more names of God that we can look into.
But as this series comes to a close, I want us just to think about
all the things that we've learned when it comes to the character
of God and, and how we can know him in a.
In a more intimate, personal way.
And when we do that, we.
We know who he is and we know his desires for our life and we know,
hopefully, his will for our life.
And that is to obey him, to serve him, to get to know him in
a greater way, to have our hearts fixed.
So if there are any other names of God that you might want
to study, we might bring back this series again.
But next week we will come back with a new.
A new word that we can find in scripture that's going to help us
understand him more.
And that's all what this series is about.
The series is about knowing God more, not just knowing the literal
words and what they mean.
That's great, but it's empty unless we connect it with our Lord,
unless we connect it with our Savior and what it means for us and
our salvation.
So if you have not trusted in Jesus as your Savior, have you, you've
not trusted in God's redemptive work, I encourage you
to do so.
I encourage you to reach out to someone, maybe at a church that
you're attending or you can reach out to us.
You can email me at Josh J O S H Masaro M A S S A r o@middletownbaptistchurch.org
I'd love to answer any questions that you might have.
I'd love to point you to scripture and show you what it means
to know Jesus as your Savior, to know that personal walk with Him.
And so I hope that you have a wonderful week.
We will be back next week with another Word of the Week and I hope
that this will be another time of spiritual growth for you and as
we go through God's Word.
So thank you again for listening.
I pray that you can share this podcast with someone that you care
about, maybe a friend, maybe family, maybe someone that you work
with.
But I.
I encourage you to do so.
So God bless you.
We'll be praying for you and hope to talk to you soon.
God bless.
Hey, I really appreciate that you listen to the Word of the Week
podcast.
If you have any questions about the podcast or, or about our
church, Middletown Baptist Church.
You can find more information about us on Facebook or YouTube or
you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org you can contact me
directly at Josh Massaro, Middletown BaptistChurch.org stay
tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper
into words that impact our life according to scripture.
Thank you so much.
God bless.
We'll talk to you soon.