Frankie Mazzapica - Three Things God Is Doing In You
Thank you for tuning in today, my name is Frankie Mazzapica. The title of the message is "Three Things God is Doing in You". Three Things God is Doing in You. Here's the message, or the verse, that I want to springboard off of, it's in Philippians chapter 3 verse 13. Actually, it's in chapter 2 verse 13, it reads like this. "And God is working in you to give you the desire and the power to do what's pleasing him". He's working in you. Your heart is working in you, your lungs are working in you, it's pumping blood through your veins. In the same way, God is in you, working in you. There are three points to that verse. It says this, that God is working in you to give you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. He's working in you to give you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
Let's dive right into the first point. He's working in you. In Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20 it says this. "That now to him who is able to do in you what is beyond your imagination". His power is working in you. It's beyond your imagination. So many times, for so many years, I've come to the Lord with prayer requests, asking God will you do this, will you do that? Will you stop that? Will you begin that? What I've noticed is that God is able to do more than I can ask, more than what I can imagine, and now I'm asking for those things. I want you to do in me and through me what I cannot imagine.
Did you know that God's plan for your life is better than your own plan for your life? And part of that plan is that what he is doing in you, he's ready for that power, for that desire, to flow out of you. He's ready for that to happen. It's beyond your imagination, that the power of God that pulls mountains out of the ground, and just thinks about water, and streams, and it happens, and he wants that to flow through you. Oftentimes, we just pray God, get me out of this season. God's like, I'll walk through this season with you, but I got plans far greater than that. I wanna move through you. Let me give you a few examples.
I was reading a book years ago, and it was written by David Yonggi Cho. He's got, like, seven million in his church, so together we have a large church. But he got a phone call one day, and it was someone on the phone, it was late at night, and the husband said you married us, I want you to come over our house and bless our divorce. You blessed our marriage, we want you to now bless our divorce. Well, Pastor Yonggi Cho Gho said I'll be there in a little bit. He hangs up the phone, he gets on his knees, and he says God, I know what you have joined together no man should separate. He gets on his knees and he begins to cry out to God, fervently.
Did you know that there's a difference between a casual prayer and a fervent prayer? In James chapter 5 verse 16 it says, "The effectual, fervent prayer," passion. Fervency is measured by passion, it's not measured by eloquency. Your fervency can be as simple as saying Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. That's the most fervent prayer you can pray, Jesus. And so, he gets on his knees and he starts praying fervently. He shows up to the apartment, and he writes, "When I walked in, the atmosphere was so cold. The husband was there, and the wife was there, and as soon as I walked in, the wife left and went to the back room".
And he began, the husband began to state his case, and as Pastor Cho was standing here, he said every word the husband said, I found myself believing. And then the wife came storming out of the back room, and she started complaining, and talking about all the things that how her husband had been being so mean to her, and the pastor said every word she was saying, I was believing. And now, here I am, I'm believing the husband, I'm believing the wife, and I don't even know where the truth is. I don't even know how to counsel them, and the only thing I knew is when I was on my knees praying fervently, I began to visualize them falling in love again. And so, he sat down on the couch, and they were sitting down across from him in two chairs, and he says I really don't know what to say, but do you mind if I pray for you? And he takes them, both of them put their hands on top of his.
They were upset about doing that because they didn't even want to touch each other's hands. Puts his hands in there, and he's holding their hands, and he says Jesus, soften their hearts, and he puts his hand on top of theirs, he says soften their hearts and cause them to love each other more than they ever have. And all of a sudden, he felt a tear hit his hand, and he thought to himself, oh, my goodness, this is working. And he said Jesus, do more. And he started feeling the other tear, the wife's tear, and he opened up his eyes, and they were both crying, and they were reconciled in that moment, just because he said a prayer. Do you know, absolutely, do you know that your prayer has the ability to cause the most unimaginable things to begin to happen? The Bible says this in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 11, where Paul says this, "I wish you would have the power to do what your faith is compelling you to do".
You know, if you ever looked at someone and said I'm gonna pray for you, and I believe there's gonna be a miracle, and then you pray for them, and nothing happens, gots, nothing, and you back up and your theology begins to be built on your past experiences rather than the Word of God. There's a big difference between walking with God and having the power of God. And how we spark that power is through recognizing that it is not something that you can do in your own strength. You can't just say, alright, as of today, but you have to know this, that God is working in you. He's not just in you being dormant, he's working. Everything inside of you is constantly working, your bones, your mind, your heart, your lungs, your blood, your veins, there's nothing in you that's not working from a physical standpoint, but when God's in you, he's working as well. Do you receive that today, come on?
I was a young boy, I was probably 12 or 13 years old. My dad went to go preach to the Navajo Indians. I don't even know where that culture or those people are, but it was in another country, and every single night, it was crazy. He was gone for five days, and I used to wake up, and I would cry, I had tears running out, I had snot coming out of my nose, and I would beg God, don't let my dad die. Don't let my dad die. This was insane, I was like, why am I praying this? I was just a kid. I was 100% convinced that something, somehow, some way, my dad was gonna die. I'm begging God, don't let him die. Don't let him die. Don't let him die.
My dad got home, and my dad's always had asthma, so he uses an inhaler. Well, he forgot his inhaler. While he was laying there at night, there was no air conditioning, nothing like that, and he said I was breathing, and as I was breathing, I was, like, breathing through a straw. And he goes I thought I was gonna die every single night. The Holy Spirit is working in you to give you the desire. I want to pray. Do you think that a 12 year old, a 13-year-old kid wants to stay up and pray? He's putting the desire in you. You are not in this room right now because you just, like, I feel like, no, no, no, no, the Bible says in John chapter 6 verse 44 that no man comes to the Son unless drawn by the Father. Your desires are being drawn. He's not leaving us as orphans, he's drawing you into his presence.
I was talking before the service, and I was saying, you know, pastors across the world, not just the United States, are mourning for the people that have decided to not come back to church after COVID. They're mourning. Pastors are mourning because there's people all across the world that have decided I can get just as much in my house as I can in the house of God. That's personal theology, it's not biblical theology. It's personal theology. The Bible says in Psalms chapter 26 verse 8 where he says I love to come to the house of the Lord because it's where his glorious presence dwells. I love to come to the house of the Lord. You say, well, he dwells in my house, too. Yes, he does, but there's something about the house of the Lord, and you, you were drawn here. You were drawn here and you responded.
Not only point number one is he working in you to give you the desires, but he's also giving you the power to do what pleases him, to do what pleases him. Let's dive into that. Point number three, to do what pleases him. You know, there is a challenge within us, it's like a war back and forth. It's a war, because the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 8 that in every place of worship, people should raise holy hands unto God. You know, for years I used to think to myself I can worship without raising my hands, my gosh. I just put my mind's attention, my heart's affection on him and worship. It always felt like I was holding two 50-pound dumbbells. I couldn't, you know, and then I was like, you know what? And plus, I don't need people staring at me.
Have you ever realized, have you ever had that revelation nobody's staring at you? Everybody's thinking about themselves, they're not thinking about you. When you see that photo and your eyes go straight to you, like, I don't like this photo, delete it, guess what? Nobody's looking at you, they're looking at themselves. They have no idea. You're like, my eyes are closed, I was blinking. They have no idea. They look good. Have you ever had someone say, you say, hey, delete it, and they're like, no, we're not deleting it, I look good. I'm not deleting this. You know, but I say this with love, nobody cares about you. They're not even thinking about you. Well, my wife is gonna be staring at me. If she is, she is so full of joy, because every wife wants to be married to a man who worships the Lord.
Every husband wants to be married to a woman who worships the Lord. That's why, and you know what? It's not like we just say I feel like raising my hands, because feeling that means nothing, You know, a lot of people say I need to be motivated to be healthy, I need to be motivated to eat right, I need to be motivated. I used to have a friend of mine who used to put, like, pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger up on the wall. This was his motivation. I need to be motivated to come to church. I need to be motivated to worship. Let me say this, forget motivation. Who cares about motivation?
Let's talk about discipline. Motivation is a feeling. I feel like worshiping, I feel like praising, I feel like praying, I feel. Who cares about what we feel like? It's the discipline of knowing if I don't have him in my life, I'm done. It's checkmate, it's checkmate, come on, encourage me, checkmate. I think all of us have tried to live without worshiping. We've tried to live without coming to church. We've just kind of drifted. You know, the Holy Spirit will only let you drift so far. He begins to draw you back. He begins to pull you back. So, how do we get, if the Bible is right that the Holy Spirit is working in you to give you the desire and the power, if he's working in you, if you choose to believe that the Scripture is real, how do you get that out?
See, God is doing three things in you. Number one, we've already talked about this, he's giving you the desire. Number two, he's giving you the power. So, now you got the desire, now you've got the power, how is it going to come from in here to out there? Power begins to move in the atmosphere when you worship. Something begins to happen in the air. This is when the power that God is doing in you begins to come out of you and change the atmosphere. Have you ever got in the car and you just feel depressed? Or you're in your house and you're like, I was in a good mood before I got home? Oh, just me, that's cool. You walk into the office and say I was having fun when I woke up this morning drinking my coffee, I was having a great time, I walk in and then this is what's going on.
There's something in the atmosphere, and the only way to shift the atmosphere and have what's in you come out of you is to worship God, to worship him. When you begin to say I love you, I love you, I love you, you're not asking for anything, and there's nothing wrong with asking for things, because God actually tells you to ask for everything. If it crosses your mind, ask for it. Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 says don't worry about anything, pray about everything, and thank him for everything he's already done. Pray about everything. So, what are you supposed to pray about? I know you know the answer, but just say it anyway. What are we supposed to pray about?
So, any thought that comes to your mind and says I'm not gonna keep asking, asking, asking, that's the enemy trying to keep your mouth shut. But when you worship, the Lord begins to set an ambush, and so all the things that are tormenting your life, they begin to fall, and you start thinking to yourself about the next problem and the next season, and God did so much so fast, you didn't even notice you were out of that season. Have you ever been there? You start worrying about, praying about the next present thing, and God had already set an ambush for things. I used to have a neighbor before we moved, this guy could not stand me. He was older than me, and every time I drove down the road, he would flip me off with passion. I thought to myself over and over, my God, I don't know what I've done to make this guy hate me to that degree. Never had someone... there's a lot, you can tell by looking at me, there's probably been, there's countless people that have not liked me, but to that degree? Oh, my gosh. Just forget this guy and just worship, worship, and all of a sudden, one day I saw a "For Sale" sign in his driveway, ciao.
The first thing is, is when you worship, it begins to move people around. He's like the great conductor. He says, hey, it's like, you know, have you ever seen a conductor? And he looks at the brass section, and he goes, and then he looks at the strings and he goes, and then all of a sudden, he looks at the strings and he goes, and he looks at the brass and he comes on. You know, when you worship, there's certain things in your life where he goes, okay, that's enough. Come on in, come on. That's what happens when you worship. This is how what's in you begins to come out of you. And then secondly, this is my favorite topic, I can talk about this all day long, is when you pray, when you pray, here's the fascinating thing.
The devil sets up traps for us. He sets up temptations that are just for you, because the person next to you doesn't have the temptation that you have, so he sets it up just for you. Custom made just for you. The Bible says in Matthew chapter 26 verse 41, Jesus is looking at Peter and he says this, "Watch and pray, so that you will not fall into temptation". Can you not pray for at least one hour? To talk about how long you pray is as awkward as telling people how much money you give in the offering. You're just not supposed to talk about that kind of stuff. But can I tell you that there's something about praying beyond your comfort zone? Peter didn't want to pray for an hour, he wanted to pray for much shorter.
And so, when the temptation came, he broke. What would have happened if he would have prayed beyond his comfort zone? What if he did what Jesus said and prayed for the hour? When the temptation came, he wouldn't have crumbled. It's just that prayer was something that he respected, but not enough to stretch his faith and pray longer than what he was comfortable with. Whenever I pray, I say to myself I'm gonna pray longer than what I feel comfortable. So, I set my phone alarm for that number, for that amount of time, and I don't come out of that room until my alarm goes off, and that's when the power that's within begins to come out. Is this helping anybody today, come on?