Glorious Way Church

God Is Able | Selena Greiner

• Pastor John Greiner

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In this message titled “God Is Able,” we’re reminded that no challenge, habit, or season is beyond God’s power. Rooted in Scripture and real-life illustrations, this episode explores how God is able to save, deliver, strengthen, and keep us—especially as we step into new things with faith instead of fear. Through the parable of the prodigal son and practical reflections on growth, flexibility, and legacy, listeners are encouraged to trust God’s strength, embrace transformation, and move forward knowing they are deeply loved, supported, and never alone.

SPEAKER_00:

Start let's start in prayer. Father, we just thank you, Lord, for tonight. We thank you for what you've done in our lives. We are grateful people. We are grateful kids. We are thankful kids. And so we thank you. We open up our heart tonight. We open up our ears. We thank you that our heart is open towards you, towards the things what you have for us. Holy Spirit, you are welcome in this place. It's not my words, but it's your words, Father. And so we just thank you. We don't take these moments for granted. We don't take these moments lightly, Father, but we thank you for what you're doing at Glorious Way Church and through us and uh through through Pastor. And so we thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So if you're taking notes, the title of my message is God is able. Everybody say, God is able. He is, he is able. And so Pastor, uh, you know, the he's been talking, so I think he had his part two message this morning, uh, 2026, the the year of the new things. Um, and uh he taught this morning on on just not limiting God, you know, not limiting God. We serve of a God of the impossible. And I think sometimes we can put limits on God, we can put limits on ourselves, um, but God's able, right? The Bible reminds us that God is able, and so no matter how big the challenge, um, no matter how heavy the burden is, God's able. All right, God's power is greater. We're never alone. Um, we're never called to face life alone. Um, so God is able. So I have a couple of points. Number one, God is able because he is all powerful. He is all powerful. In Jeremiah 32, uh 17. Oh, and I'll say welcome to live stream. We're on live stream. I forgot to say, hi, live stream. I I plugged in my phone. I saw a couple, I don't know how many Donaldsons were watching, and Miss Karen was watching. Hi, Miss Karen, hi Donaldsons, hi Sheree. Anybody else? I don't know. I quick Tina Sam, hi Tina Sam. I think Miss Sandy, somebody. Uh-huh. Hi, welcome. So glad you joined us. Um, I'm thankful for technology. You know, it nothing takes the place of face-to-face, but um, when you can't make it, you know, with what for those of y'all, I know many of y'all live far. And so I'm glad for technology, and you're able to join us online. So I'm waving to you guys. Um, so God, number one, God's able because he's all powerful. Jeremiah 32, 17, the new living says, Oh sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the earth by your strong hand and powerful arm. Nothing is too hard for you. Everybody say, Nothing's too hard for you. So God created everything. No problem, no problem is greater than his power. And sometimes we can forget that. We focus on the problem instead of God's power. We could be tempted to. I'm not saying you do, I'm just saying we can be tempted to focus on the problem instead of the power of his power. And so what looks impossible to humans is possible with God, right? It's possible with God. And so, but some, you know, before we address a situation in our life, you know, here we are talking about the new things. And for a while, we um in youth we had a a uh a habit theme. I don't remember if that was last year or the year before, but um, and so I taught the teens on how to how we develop new habits. And so we we are talking about new, it's the new, you know, and and sometimes that can be uncomfortable, right? Um, like for me, I just want to develop a habit. I used to back when I was in my 20s, I would get up at 4:30 or 5 and I would go work out, right? Before the before when the kids were little and before the day started, I just wanted to get my workout in at 4:30 or at 5 a.m. I don't do that now. And so last week, one time I did get up at 5 and went to the Y. I'm like, oh, there's hardly anybody here. This is what the Y looks like at 5 a.m. All right. Okay, I did that once, but I'm trying to create a new habit of getting up an hour earlier, right? Like if I usually get up at six, I'm gonna get up early. And so it can be difficult, right? You and especially if you go to bed at 1 a.m., that's not gonna really work out. Um, you know, just four hours of sleep, I don't function very well on four hours of sleep. Um, but so God, so the new, and so we have to ask ourselves, you know, like, hey, maybe God wants me to develop a new habit. Maybe it's a new way of thinking about a certain situation, and and just uh, but God, you know what, the Holy Spirit's great on the inside of us. He can help us, He can help us. And so uh we want to make we just always focus on, you know, back to hey, God's all powerful. God is the situation, or maybe there's some goals, um, new things that God has for us, but always uh there's a throw, you know, always remember that God is powerful, right? And he's able, he is able to help you. You're not in it alone. He is able to help you, and he does, he helps us. Number two, God is able to save and deliver, he's able to save and deliver. Hebrews 7, 25 says, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. And so God's able to completely save, to completely deliver. Um, you know, in the Old Testament, you know, they had to they had to do daily sacrifices. Jesus was the one sacrifice, right? They had it, they had a uh for the atonement, they had they had to sacrifice, but no, Jesus is our one, one sacrifice. He's our He's our one and only. And so He's able to deliver His people from danger, from sin, from bondage. We don't have to be in the wilderness. You know, like just Pastor Preached this morning, the uh the children, they okay, they had quail, they had manna, but then they forgot. And and so we don't want to forget how good God has been to us. We don't want to go around the mountain 40 times, 40 years. We don't, we don't want to keep doing the same thing, old habits, old way of thinking, um, you know, just stuck, stuck. And so God wants us to, God's able, he's able to deliver us, he's able to save us from all kinds of things. If we allow him, we have to be a willing participant. How many of y'all know that? We have to be a willing participant. Say, I am willing, amen. Number three, God is able to strengthen us, God is able to strengthen us. 2 Corinthians 9, 8 says, and God is able to make all grace abound toward you. This is a very familiar verse. That you, everybody say, me, always having all, not some, not partiality, not if you've been a good girl or good boy today, all things, always having all sufficiency and all things, may have an abundance for every good work. And so he's able to strengthen us, he is able to make all grace abound towards us. He gives us strength when we feel weak, when we don't feel like we can keep going. He gives us the strength to keep going, and his grace supplies everything we need to endure. I always say, endure. Yes, endure through the tough times, right? Now I brought this thing. Y'all know what this what kind of package is this? Amazon. Hey, y'all Amazon shoppers. Allison's not in here, she's an Amazon shopper. Most of us are. Order this on Friday, got it here on Saturday. Let's see, I need two volunteers. Let's have Anna and Miss Carolina. Two volunteers. Two volunteers. What is it? What is it? Mr. Stretchy Armstrong. So Pastor John Oasting a long time ago had a Mr. Armstrong. I don't remember who he grabbed from the audience. Stretch Armstrong. Yeah, it was Clevenger and I don't know. Oh, I forgot the other. I sure. Yeah, so one of y'all. I just gonna. Yes, I think it was Don Jackson. Yeah, and he would Pastor John Osting was like, stretch your faith. Okay, so I'm gonna have y'all, I'm gonna have y'all one get on one side. Have him face, have stretch him as far as oh, oh, can you go further? Can you go further? Oh, how about his legs also? Do his legs stretch? Oh. Okay, okay, yay. That's good, that's good. Give it up for them. Yay. There's no evidence. Yeah, here he is. He's kind of funny looking. Sorry, he's in his well, he's in his workout shorts. So my point to that, you know, sometimes we're stretched in life, right? You can't even tell that he was stretched. He went back, right? And so um, you know, when we're stretched in life, we should remain flexible, right? Willing to change when God corrects us, um, being flexible. Um, and so life stretches us, but with God's help, with his strength of strength, we can bounce back. We don't even have to look like we've been stretched and put through the ringer, right? We don't even have to have like a frown on our face and and crying and and no, we can we can look like him. Not maybe not that bulked up, but no evidence that he was stretched by Carolina and Anna, right? Put him through the ringer. Um, but yeah, life life sometimes happens and we go through things, but um God strengthens us. There's this inner strength on the inside, um, you know, that that holds us tight. I put here firm and essentials, which to me is like non-negotiables, right? I I taught in the teens to what non-negotiables are, flexible and non-essentials, right? We during storms, we know what essentials and not, obviously, by what everybody picks at the store, we know what the essentials are. Toilet paper, and we need some bread and water and milk. Those are the essentials, right? The non-essentials, all that's what's left on the shelves, those are non-essentials. Stuff that really doesn't matter. And so um, so firm are the essentials, firm in the non-negotiables of life, right? Nobody uh should be able to move you from the non-negotiables of life, honesty, right? Truth, um, pro-life, you know, the the word that's a non-negotiable. You you can't be talked out of it. And so, um, so we we should remain firm in that. That that's an inner strength. Um, and so and so there's an inner strength that can't, you know, the Holy Spirit helps us. I thought of a tree um also when I was um um meditating on this. Um, you know, the roots are are deep, but the branches are flexible, right? And so in a big tree, man, those, especially with ice storms, like you can see, y'all seen pictures of of a big tree and there's icicles, right? The branches, I'm like, man, now sometimes the branches do break, but I'm amazed at how much they can withstand, right? And so roots are deep, branches are flexible. And so when you allow the Holy Spirit, when you allow God to strengthen you on the inside, when you don't negotiate on your non-negotiables, right? When you're honest with your truthful, when you put God first, when you love others, um, you there's this inner strength that comes from the, not, not from the exterior, but it's this inner strength. Like when times come and you're stretched, right, you'll bounce back. Right? And so, and so you always have to remind yourself, like, hey, God, you're my source, you're my strength, not not when everything's not when there's money in the bank, not when everybody's treating me right, not when all things are going the right way, um, but your word is what anchors me. And so there's a there's an inner strength that comes from that. Let's see, 1 Corinthians 2, 4 through 5 in the New Living says, and my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom, but in the power of God. And so Paul here is saying, I don't come to you with, you know, I know it all, not with wise and persuasive words, right? Um, he didn't mean that he was uneducated. It just they didn't, he didn't want them relying on, you know, his brain. Instead, it he always pointed people to the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. It's like, it's the Holy Spirit, it's not my words, right? Sometimes when we may be able to, uh, or when we're, you know, maybe don't know how the right words to say, or we're not courageous, or we're a little shy to step out in that boldness. But Paul here is saying, like, hey, it's when you think of the scripture, it's I rely, I relied on the power of the Holy Spirit, not on my persuasive lingo, it's the Holy Spirit. Amen. And so God's able to strengthen us. Um, and so that's our stability, and so it's not trying to persuade people, um, but it's knowing that uh the Holy Spirit, He's our source, He's our guide, He's our intercessor. We have a lawyer living on the inside of us, amen. Number four, God is able to keep us, God is able to keep you. Jude 124 says, Now unto him that is able, everybody say he is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless. Let me read that again. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless. So not only does he save us, but he keeps us. We can trust him to guide us, to protect us, to preserve our lives. He's faithful, he's faithful to his promises. He always keeps us, he always saves us, he never abandons uh his kids. Um, and his commitment to us doesn't depend on our perfection, right? Right? I mean, think about if you're a parent, how much you want your kids blessed. Right? Think about that and the love you have for your kids or your grandkids or your family members. God's love is so much more than that. His love is so much more than that. And so he loves you, he has a purpose and a plan for you. He wants to strengthen you, he wants to keep you. And so always remember that he's able to keep you. And so it doesn't depend on your perfect, it's not about perfection, um, but but it's about his love for you. And so, um, and there's a response, you know. Yes, you know, the Bible's um there are blessings, but then there are also curses, you know, if there's if-thins, if you are willing and obedient. You know, I grew up in a household, and when I say that, I I think of, you know, I'm thankful not all parents are perfect. I've yet to meet any, but y'all, y'all are perfect parents. Y'all are perfect parents. Uh, but I'm thankful I grew up in a household where, you know, I was not only told what to do, but I was explained as the why. Like, so I had a mom that, you know, prayed Psalm 91 over me, but then I had a dad who would, you know, if I bought junk cereal, he would cut out the box and circle the ingredients and put them on the table, and then he would leave for work. And then I would, I was like, oh, okay, that's what I'm eating. Or he would cut out Dear Ann Landers from the newspaper and um have me read an article so he could tell, you know, I remember one article that she talked about um just speeding and what happens in the first second of the car when it on the impact and the second, and and it made an impact on my life because he would say, Hey, don't speed. But this is now I read, this is what happens if you do, or if you if you wreck the car. Okay, all right. And so I had so I grew up in a household, um, you know, where I was told, hey, God is good, but then also, hey, this is what happens if you do this, and so the Bible, that's why. So if I teach to you like that, first I was taught that way growing up, and then also the Bible is full of use if you read the Bible, you know, God's a good God, but then uh there are if thens, and so there's the why of hey, God wants to protect us, He wants to keep us safe, and so we it's good to know, and especially we. Kids. It's good to tell them, oh, don't just tell me, don't do this. But you know what? Then explain, you know, what happens if you do do this. Um, and it's for their protection and it's for their love. And so God wants to keep you, God keeps us safe. God, God loves his kids, he loves you, and he has a plan for your life. He wants to keep us, he wants to deliver us. This is my last scripture, and then I'll let you go. Luke 15. Actually, it's the parable of the lost son. How about we just read it? You want to read the whole thing? Yeah, we have a couple of minutes. Okay, we'll read the whole thing. So Luke 15, um, in the New King James, starting with verse 11, says, uh, then he said, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me. So he divided to them his livelihood, and not many days after the young son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine, and he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, and bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost in his fountain, and they began to be merry. Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf. But he was angry and would not go in. He didn't want to be part of the party. Good food was there. There was music. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, Lo, these many years I have been serving you. I never transgressed your commandment at any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him, and he said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. And so that shows just a picture of our Heavenly Father, right? Um He leads with love, he He loves us just like the lost son. He was lost, he spent it all. His inheritance was given to him, and he wasted it. But his dad greeted him, didn't hold it over him, wasn't mad, wasn't upset, didn't, didn't have a long laundry list of things. He he greeted him, and then above that, threw him a party. Like who, right? A lot of times we, you know, just think about that. Think about family members or other people who, you know, maybe have strayed away, and and then we should have a party. When they come back, we should have a party. Not like, oh, oh, you know, oh, look at them. Or look, you know, no, no, this here is an example of our heavenly father and how he loves us and how he loves humanity. Even when humanity doesn't might may not agree right now, God loves humanity. God created humanity, God created people. Just heads up. God made people, right? And he loves them. He loves them and he has compassion for them. He sees them from afar coming. And he's like, yay! He rejoices over the one. He rejoices over the one. And so our heavenly Father loves us so much. So God's all-powerful, right? He's able to save, he's able to strengthen, he's able to deliver, he's able to keep us. Right? And so uh in last scripture, Romans 8 31. What shall we say about such wonderful things? If God is for us, who can be against us? If God is for us, who can be against us? And so God's for us. God is for you. When we align up, when we line up with his words, when we're flexible, um, when we love each other, where we're full of compassion, God is able to say, either way, whether we do that or not, He's He's He's all of these things because He just is. God's His His love abounds so much for us. And so I just wanted to encourage you with that tonight. He's able to save, He's able to deliver. So whatever you're going through, you know, sometimes we uh on the last um parable, we we correlate um, you know, our our earthly father to our heavenly father, but our heavenly father is so much more, right? He's so much more. And so whatever we're facing or whatever trouble we're going through, or whatever bad habit, you know, may we have a bad habit, like again, 2026, year of the new things. And it's easy to say that, right? Very easy to say words, but it's another thing to actually do something, take a step of faith, right? To do something different, to start something different, to create a new habit, a new way of thinking, a new perspective, right? Maybe I'm doing something, but then to know the why or the repercussion of if I keep doing that, right? How is it impacting future generations? If I keep treating people this way, how is that impacting future generations? If I say those words, how is that impacting future generations? What legacy am I leaving? So the year of the new things, it's not just for this year, but it it's it's uh it's for future generations to come. It's a it's not just a right now 2026, right? So your decisions and your choices affect uh not only you but other people around you. And so again, God, it's good to know that God is able, right? He is able and he's able to protect us, he's able to save us, he's able to deliver us, but we also have to be in line with the word of God and in line with the Holy Spirit and uh make sure that we're not offending the Holy Spirit by our words and our actions, but also just being uh sensitive to the Holy Spirit, right? And so that's how we align ourselves with the new. There's like this new, there's an open door, there's a new. I've never been through it before. I don't know what it's like. And so, um, but again, God is able, God is able. Uh, well, let me say a prayer over you, Father. We just thank you, Lord, for your word. We thank you, Father, that you are able. You are able to save us, you are able to deliver us, you are able to heal us from the inside out. And so we thank you, Father, that this is the year of new things. But we thank you, Father, that not only is this year of the new things, Father, but you are you are a future-minded God. You know the past, you know the present, and you know the future. And so we thank you, Lord, that we align ourselves with your word. We align ourselves with the Holy Spirit. May what we say and do glorify you. May we be a conduit of love to others. May we show compassion to others, just like the parable of the lost son. People don't have to get it all straightened out to come to you. You love them, anyways. You're a heavenly father to them, anyways. May we be like that, may we be so full of compassion that our first thought isn't a bad thought, that our first thought isn't a judgmental thought. But may our first thought be a Holy Spirit thought. Always, always about everybody and anybody that comes along our pathway. No matter what we've heard about them, no matter what we know about them, I thank you, Father, that our heart posture is towards you. Our heart posture is towards you, Father. And so we thank you that you are a Lord of the new. But we must first do see the new in us, a new heart, a new way of thinking, a new way of doing things. And so we thank you, Lord, that you gave us the Holy Spirit. He's our helper, he's our guide, he's our comforter. In moments where we need comfort, he comforts. In moments when we need wisdom, he's our wise, and we're linked up with him. And so we thank you, Father. We thank you, Lord. We pray a special prayer over everybody here tonight, Father. We thank you, Lord, that you mend the broken heart. Maybe there are ones that didn't have a good earthly father. I thank you that you're their heavenly father. You meet every need, you meet every empty void in that heart. Thank you, Father. We worship you. We thank you. Our our life is a life of worship. Our life, our lifestyle, the way we do life is worship. It's full of worship. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father.