Peter Tan-Chi - Limitless God, Unleash His Power
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Summary
In this sermon titled «Limitless God, ” Pastor Peter Tan-Chi teaches that nothing is too difficult for God (Jeremiah 32:17,27). Yet, we can limit His power in our lives through sin and unbelief. To unleash God’s limitless power, we must walk by faith, not by sight, surrender everything to Jesus, obey His commands, and fix our eyes on Him—especially in storms. Using the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 and Peter walking on water, he shows that God invites us to participate in His miracles through obedience and faith. The key takeaway: Get out of your comfort zone, trust God’s provision, and watch Him do far more abundantly than we ask or think.
Limitless God: Unleash His Power
God is the Creator, Nothing is Too Difficult for Him
The topic today is Limitless God.
What do we mean when we say God is limitless? Well, let’s look at the Bible. Jeremiah 32. Let’s read together. Ah Lord God! together. Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You.
God is telling us today He is limitless. He is the creator of heaven and earth and nothing is too difficult.
Now look at how God described Himself. Same book, same chapter. Jeremiah 32:27. Everybody read. Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me?
You know God is talking to you today. God is telling you, „I know you have problems. I know you have struggles, but is there anything too difficult for Me“?
Is there anything that is too difficult for God to help you with? „Is there anything too difficult for Me“? What is your answer?
Do you have a big problem? Yes or no? Yes. Do you have a big God? How big is God compared to your problem? Is God bigger than your problem?
If God is bigger than your problem, what happens to your problem? It’s small Yes or no? If God is small, you have a big problem.
So let me ask you, How big is your God? Big or small?
So do you have a problem? If God is big, your problem is small. If your God is small, your problem is big.
God Can Do Far More Abundantly Than We Ask or Think
Now let me ask you, You have a big problem or small problem?
Paul tells us together, now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.
This is an amazing verse. It’s full of redundancy. When I say redundant, God wants you to know He’s amazing.
You know why? Look at the grammar. Now to Him, to God limitless, who is able to do. You can stop here. God is able to do but He did not.
God is able to do what? far more. You could stop there. God is able to do far more. Agree?
The Bible continues, far more what? abundantly. You could stop here. God is able to do far more abundantly. No, no. He continued far more abundantly what? Beyond.
You can stop there. God is able to do far more abundantly beyond. But He wants you to know something beyond what? Everybody read all that we ask or think.
That’s how amazing God is.
We Can Limit God’s Power
Now, let me ask you, how is your prayer life? You know, most of us don’t pray. You only pray when you are in trouble. Yes or no? Most of us.
I discover people become prayerful when they discover they have cancer, or when they discover they are about to die, or when they have financial problem or marital problem.
But before that, they don’t pray. You know why? Because you do not know God.
So my question is this, if God is limitless, can you limit Him? You cannot limit God. Yes, because God is God. He’s supreme.
At the same time you can limit Him. What do I mean? You can limit God. How? You limit Him. By what? By what He will do in you through you.
You mean I can limit God for what He will do in me? Yes.
What do I mean? Let’s find out, everybody. Let’s read this verse. If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear.
You limit God’s power in your life when you continue to live in sin. So sin will limit God’s work, what God will do in your life.
What do I mean? One more verse, together. He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.
They limited God’s power to do miracles because of what? Unbelief. Not because God cannot do it, but God will choose not to do it.
Look at this verse. He could do no miracle there, except He laid His hands on a few sick people, healed them, and He wondered at their unbelief.
You see, You need to understand the meaning of the word unbelief. Unbelief is not saying you don’t believe in the existence of God or you don’t believe in Jesus.
Unbelief is deeper than that. Unbelief is when you question the very goodness and character of God. It is demonstrated by disobedience. It is demonstrated by a lack of reverence and worship.
Because in your mind, Jesus is just a good man, a prophet, or a vending machine or a Santa Claus. Many people treat Jesus like what? Santa Claus. When you want something, you go to Him. That is unbelief.
You need to know who is Jesus.
God’s Heart: He Wants to Bless You Abundantly
You know, God wants you to know how much He loves you. Look at Psalm 81 verse 13,16 God is talking to the Israelites.
Oh that My people would listen to Me, That Israel would walk in My ways.
You know what is His heart’s desire? „If only you would follow Me, If only you would listen to Me“.
What is His promise to you and to me? Look at His promise. I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, with the honey from the rock I would satisfy you.
You know what God is telling the Jewish people? „I saved you from Egypt. I love you, but you don’t want to listen to Me. You don’t want to follow Me. I would have given you the best of the land. I will feed you with the finest of wheat, with honey from the rock, I will satisfy you“.
It’s a description of God’s amazing blessing.
Can you limit God’s blessing in your life? Answer, Yes. Do you want to limit His blessing? No.
So I want to teach you tonight. How do you unleash God’s power? But first you need to know the heart of Jesus.
Everybody read this. The thief, together ready go, the thief Do you really believe that Jesus came, that you may have life and have it abundantly?
Look at the contrast. The contrast is the thief comes to steal, to kill and destroy. He’s referring to what? There are many thieves today sponsored by Satan.
Satan wants to deceive you. He wants to destroy you. He wants to steal your joy, steal your peace, break up your family.
But Jesus says, I came that you may have life. Not just life, but have life abundantly.
What is the meaning of „abundantly“? The word abundantly does not always mean money, but it means an overflowing life.
You don’t have to have a lot of money to have peace, joy. Amen? Many people are very rich, but they are miserable. You have many rich people with many cars. Their family is a mess.
So that is not what Jesus is talking about. He’s talking about true abundance. Yes, your needs He will take care of them. Jesus promised. „I will take care of your needs“.
But above all, I will give you life abundantly. How many of you like to experience the abundant life of Jesus? You like to experience that? Some of you are experiencing it already. Yes or no?
So how do you do it?
Everybody read. We walk, Everybody. We walk by faith, not by sight.
What does that mean? To walk by sight means you trust your own intelligence, you trust your own feelings. The Bible says that’s not how you live the Christian life.
To live the Christian life, you walk by faith. What does that mean? To walk by faith means you focus on Jesus. His word, His promises.
Faith is never something like no object. Faith always has an object. Faith always has an object. It is not the size of your faith, it is the reliability of the object of your faith.
We walk by faith. I put my faith in Jesus, in His word and His promises, Not on my self.
You want to unleash God’s power in your life? Everybody, How do you do it? Walk by faith, not by sight.
The Miracle of the 5 Loaves and 2 Fish
So how do you apply this in your life? I will give you a few basic principles taught by Jesus.
I will give you the story of the miracle taught by Jesus, which will shock you because the topic today is so simple.
Everybody read this together. Limitless God, Unleash His power.
The story I’m going to give you is about the story of the 5 loaves and the 2 fish.
This story is the only miracle recorded in the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Many miracles are not recorded in all.
You have miracles in Matthew, not mentioned in Mark. You have miracles in Mark, not mentioned in Luke. But this miracle mentioned Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.
Number 2, this is the only miracle that Jesus asked the disciples to participate. All the other miracles of Jesus, He did not ask the disciples to participate, but this miracle, Jesus asked the disciples to participate.
Does that mean this miracle will not happen if they did not participate? Think about it.
Why did Jesus ask the disciples to join Him in this miracle? Because Jesus is giving you and me a lesson to unleash God’s power, You must learn to obey. You must learn to fix your eyes on Jesus. If not, you will not unleash God’s power.
Are you ready? All right, I will give you the story now.
Okay, you like stories? Simple story.
Once upon a time, according to Matthew chapter 14. Together, let’s read.
It was evening, the disciples came to Jesus and said, „This place is desolate, the hour is already late. send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves“.
What was the problem Ladies and gentlemen? It was dark already. The crowd, according to the Bible is over easily, maybe 15,000 people.
Now, I want you to imagine now. Look at the size of this crowd. Just imagine now. Okay imagine, you are the disciple.
You look at the crowd. Now the crowd is far bigger than this 15,000. What’s your problem? How will you feed the people?
See, there’s a problem. If you focus on the problem and you don’t focus on Jesus, you have a problem.
The problem is, how will I feed the crowd? So they came up with a good solution. What’s the solution? Everybody, If you have problems with people, what do you do? „Go away“.
Send the crowds away. You know why? We don’t have McDonald’s here, we don’t have chowking here. You just go home and eat.
My friend, if you don’t know Jesus, you will always send the problem to somebody else because you do not know what Jesus can do.
And you know what? Jesus gave them an amazing instruction. Jesus said to them, „They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat“.
You know I have learned something. When God asks you to do something, it’s a command. You obey and He gives you the means.
Let me repeat. When God asks you to do something hard, you are never alone. If God tells you to do something, you obey Him. He gives you the power, the resources, the provision, provided God tells you.
So the secret of experiencing the supernatural power of God is to walk by faith, obedience.
You see the disciples were told you feed them. You know what they, what did they do? I tell you, they began to think how will we do it?
So one of the disciples, Andrew, said to Jesus, there is a boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. His conclusion, but what are these for so many people?
You see, he looked at the resources. He said, this cannot be. You see, when you focus on your own resources, you will not be able to unleash God’s power.
You know why? Because your own resources will never be sufficient to solve problems.
When you want to unleash God’s power, do not look at your own resources, do not look at the problem only, you look to Jesus.
Walk by faith, not by sight.
My friend, you want to unleash God’s power in your life? Focus on Jesus, not on the problem. Problems will discourage you. You focus on yourself, you’ll be discouraged.
You know what Jesus told the servant Andrew? What he told his disciple Andrew what to do? All right, let’s read.
They said to Him, we only have five loaves and two fish.
You know what Jesus said? Bring them here to Me, bring it to Me.
My friend, if you are the little boy, will you surrender your five loaves and two fish? Come on, be honest.
You know, if I were the little boy, I would tell myself, why should I give my five loaves two fish? It won’t feed everybody. Useless. I’ll keep it to myself. Is that possible? Yes.
But if you want to experience God’s supernatural miracle in your life, surrender. Surrender whatever He asks you to do.
And that’s what they did. You know what happened? Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, looking up to heaven, He blessed the food, breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples and the disciples gave them to the crowd.
Do you notice the disciples participated in the miracle. Jesus gave the bread to the disciples. The disciples gave the bread to the people.
Did you think about that? Who first brought the fish and the loaves of bread to Jesus? The disciples.
1 miracle that teaches you something. God does not need us, but He gives you and me the privilege to become the distributor of His blessing.
You are not the manufacturer, I’m only a distributor. As God gives me, I give to others.
Tell your neighbor, You are a distributor. You are a channel of God’s blessing.
Remember, we are channels, we are distributors, we are a conduit. Blessing comes from where? God.
That’s why some people are very generous. You know why they are very generous? Because God provides, they give.
Some people are very kuripot, stingy. You know why? In their mind, I need to take care of myself. They don’t understand the mathematics of God.
You know, people often ask me how come in CCF, you don’t pass the offering boxes, you don’t pass things for money.
Can I tell you something? I believe in God’s sufficiency. And if God touches your heart, you will give. Yes or no?
That’s why God has blessed CCF throughout the years, because people know everything I have belongs to God. Yes or no?
Some of you don’t understand God’s economy. You are not blessed because you are a hoarder. You are a keeper. You do not know God’s blessing.
Some of you don’t share love and God’s Word with other people because you keep it to yourself.
So my friend, you need to understand. You want to unleash God’s power in your life? God does not need your money, He does not need your time, but God wants to give you the privilege of being a blessing to others.
Look at the blessing. Everybody read. They all ate and were satisfied. Amazing.
They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, 12 full baskets. My goodness, may take home pa. 12 full baskets.
Why? How many disciples? 12. God wants each disciple to remember this lesson for the rest of their life. God can provide.
Can God provide for you? Yes or no? So tell your neighbor. God can provide for your needs.
Don’t be afraid of financial problems. Is God faithful? Praise God.
Now the Bible tells us there were about 5,000 men who ate besides women and children. So how many? 5,000 men besides what? Women and children.
So can you guess how many? It’s up to you, it’s a big crowd.
Let me ask you a question, If that little boy did not surrender the five loaves and the two fish, what do you think would have happened?
The Bible tells us God can command a stone to become bread. God does not need the boy. God does not need your five loaves and two fish, because God is God. Amen.
But God gives you the privilege of experiencing His supernatural provision.
I like what Dwight L. Moody said. Everybody read, „Let God have your life. He can do more with it than you can“.
Surrender your life. And you know when you surrender, you obey.
The Storm and Walking on Water
Look at what happened.
Matthew 14:22–23. Most Bible teachers, we stop. They don’t teach this anymore. The reason why I’m teaching this because it is part of the story. How to unleash God’s power.
Let’s read, immediately, immediately after the miracle of feeding the 5,000, He and others, He made— everybody read. He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of Him to the other side.
Notice the grammar. He made them get into the boat. He made sure they got into the boat. Why? I will tell you later.
After He had sent the crowds away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray, and when it was evening He was there all alone.
The secret of the power of Jesus is His prayer life. He wanted to be alone with God the Father.
He sent the disciples on their own. And you know what? When they were obeying Jesus, something happened.
The boat was already a long distance from the land, battered by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Suddenly they encountered a storm.
Now how would you feel if you obeyed Jesus, got into the boat and then suddenly after a while, there’s a storm. Be honest.
For many Christians, they’ll be doubting. Am I in the will of God? Is this God’s will for me? How come by obeying Him, I’m having problems? Is that possible?
Let me now tell you, when you encounter storms because you obey Jesus, that storm is always meant to build you up, to make you stronger.
Storms come in many forms. Storms are God’s way of building you up.
I learned a lot of lessons during the storms of my life. Why? Because you realize what it’s all about.
When you have storms, it is not bad. A storm is to wake you up. How many of you are having storms right now in your life?
Alright, I want you to surrender that storm today. You know why? Because God has an amazing plan.
Look at the plan of God. In the fourth watch of the night He came to them. Jesus came to them. They didn’t ask for Jesus, Jesus approached them walking in the sea.
When the disciples saw Jesus walking on the sea, they were terrified and said, „It is a ghost“! And they cried out in fear.
If you were the disciples, will you be afraid? You see, you see, it has never been done before. Nobody walk on water.
So who can walk on water? Wow. They say multo, multo ito. You know what is multo in English? Multo is ghost. Do you believe in ghosts? That’s another Bible study.
In the meantime, what happened? The Bible tells us, immediately Jesus spoke to them. Everybody, what did Jesus say? Everybody, „Take courage, It is I, do not be afraid“.
3 things I want you to listen to Jesus today. #1, He tells you, take courage. Don’t be discouraged.
#2, He tells you, it is I. Jesus is here, present tonight. Yes or no? Yes.
And He says, do not be afraid.
You want to unleash God’s power in your life? Obey Jesus, Don’t be afraid of the storm.
Let’s read, Peter said to Him, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.
There were 12 disciples, only one disciple asked Jesus. Command me to walk on the water.
This is very important for you to learn how to unleash God’s power. The others did not ask Jesus to command them to walk on water.
Why did Peter say, command me to walk on water? Because Peter knew, when God issues you a command and you obey, He provides the means and the power provided it is God’s command.
All right, You know what did Jesus do? Amazing. Jesus said, come. that’s a command, Come.
And Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.
I want you to imagine now, Peter getting out of the boat and walking on water. Ladies and gentlemen, would you like to walk on water?
12 disciples, Only 1 walked on water. What’s the lesson? God wants all of you to supernaturally experience His power in your life, but you will not experience that power until you learn to obey.
To obey is to get out of your comfort zone. If you stay in the boat, you will never walk on water.
How do you walk on water? Get out of the boat.
Now let me ask you, what is your comfort zone today? What is the boat you are on now that you feel so comfortable you don’t want to move out?
It can be a sinful relationship. It can be something you are doing that God is not happy. God says, get out of your comfort zone.
You know what happened? Let’s finish. Everybody, please read. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, „Lord, save me“!
What’s the lesson here? Seeing the wind. The Christian life is you’ve got to fix your eyes on Jesus.
If you fix your eyes on Jesus, you will not sink. But the moment you don’t fix your eyes on Jesus, you fix your eyes on the wind, on the storm, on people, you will sink.
Do you know there are many Christians who are so discouraged because they fix their eyes on people?
Do you know how many people I know who have stopped following God because they were offended? They say because of this guy, I don’t want anymore.
Ladies and gentlemen, stop looking at people. Fix your eyes on who? Jesus.
The best people will disappoint you, your family will disappoint you, your husband will disappoint you, your loved ones will disappoint you, your pastors will disappoint you, and you will disappoint yourself.
So may I suggest, stop looking at people, stop looking at yourself. Who do you look at? Jesus.
And when you walk with Jesus, you will not sink. You will have storms, but you will not sink.
You look at people, you will sink. Guaranteed.
So do you know how to unleash power? Look at Jesus, don’t look at the storm.
And then the Bible tells us immediately when he cried out, Jesus stretched out His hand, took hold of him. You of little faith, Why did you doubt?
You know, when Peter cried out, To me that is the most sincere prayer. What is the most sincere prayer? Everybody read, Lord, save me.
I guarantee you, if you pray from the heart today, you ask Jesus to, you ask Jesus to save you. Will He save you? He promised to save you, provided you sincerely ask Him.
You see, Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins. But just because He died on the cross does not mean everyone is saved.
Who will only be saved? To those who humble themselves, admit they are sinners, and come to Jesus.
That’s why Jesus says, believe. Only those who trust Him.
Some of you know about Jesus, but you don’t really know Him. Some of you have religion, but you don’t have a relationship.
That’s why your life is not changed. You have been attending Bible studies coming here, but your life is still the same.
Why? You have never surrendered everything. You need to pray, Lord, save me.
Will you want to pray that prayer? So today I’ll give you that opportunity to pray that prayer. Lord, save me.
And I promise you one thing, from the strength of the Word of God, immediately Jesus saved him.
You of little faith, why did you doubt?
You know when Jesus saved Peter, can you imagine how the 2 of them walked? When they got into the boat, the wind stopped.
Jesus walked with Peter, they got inside the boat, the wind stopped.
When the wind stopped, what happened? Please read. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying „You are certainly God’s Son“!
For the first time in the Gospel of Matthew, you have Jesus receiving worship.
Jesus will never accept worship if He is not God. In the Bible you see people trying to worship angels. And what would the angels say? Don’t do that, I am only a servant of the Lord. Worship God alone.
The fact that Jesus accepted the worship of His disciples tells me, Jesus is more than a man. Jesus is more than a Savior, He is the Son of God and that is the greatest blessing you will ever encounter.
When God opens your eyes, yes, to see who Jesus is. When you learn to see who Jesus is, you will never be the same. You will not take Him for granted.
Well, if you want to experience supernatural power, you need to get out of the boat. Get out of the boat.
Is God asking you to do something? Well, let me tell you. Many years ago, a wonderful lady got out of the boat.
Do you know who is this lady? This beautiful lady got out of the boat, came to the Philippines.
And when she went to the Philippines, she met this handsome young man. And then when they got to know each other, they got married.
What’s my point? When you get out of your comfort zone and you surrender your life to Jesus.
You see, my wife surrendered her life to Jesus. I surrendered my ambition, my dreams to Jesus.
I was supposed to go to Georgia, Atlanta, to work with Coca-Cola. But I chose not to go to the States because God wanted me here.
Simple decision. Surrender, follow Jesus.
But my friend, the implication of what you do when you follow Jesus is something that you will never comprehend.
You see the cost, the cost of obeying Jesus is costly, but the cost of not obeying Jesus is even more.
What do I mean? The cost of not obeying is you miss out on what God can do in your life, through your life.
You do not know what you will miss. Some of you are happy with your life right now.
But my friend, if you are not doing what God wants you to do, you are missing out on the best.
You may think my wife sacrificed, you may think I sacrificed. No, by following Jesus, it was the best thing we could do.
Can I tell you why? God gave us 5 wonderful children. What do you notice about my children? Are they all good looking? Like the wife.
Of course, I have to admit, like my wife. And you know, they all got happily married. Praise God.
And you know what else? They love the Lord. They serve the Lord.
My wife and I, You know what we tell each other? The greatest blessing is my children are all walking with the Lord. That, money cannot buy.
And it’s all because once upon a time, somebody got out of her comfort zone to come all the way here.
And today, God has given us 24 grandchildren. Amazing gift.
And because of that, my wife and I are ordinary people. So ordinary.
When we started CCF, I did not even have a seminary degree. Just ordinary people, but we wanted to serve the Lord.
My friend, God is speaking to you. God is asking each of you to get out of your comfort zone.
I’m asking you now to consider the mission that God has given us. I want you to get out of your comfort zone.
Speak to somebody about Jesus. It can be your loved ones, it can be your relatives, but you don’t feel comfortable, but God wants you to share the gospel.
Officemates, suppliers, Whatever it is, I want you to get out of your comfort zone and do what God wants you to do.
Closing Invitation & Prayer
So my friend, if God is speaking to you today, some of you, you need to be saved. I want you to raise your hand.
Some of you, you need to join this movement. Get out of your boat.
Are you listening to Jesus? All right, let’s bow our heads.
If you want Jesus to save you, will you raise your hand? Higher. You know you are not saved, but you want Him to save you.
He died on the cross to save you from sin. If that’s your desire, raise your hands up. Pray with me.
Lord Jesus, I admit I’m a sinner. I need You. I am sinking emotionally. I am sinking in sin. I need You, save me.
I receive You, I invite You to be my Savior and my Master. Change my life. I give You my all.
Thank You Jesus, for dying on the cross for my sin.
With your heads bowed down. If you are already a Christian, you are a follower of Jesus, but you want to step out of your comfort zone.
You want to say, Lord, I will reach out to my neighbors, I’ll reach out to my friends, to my loved ones. I will multiply myself. I will share the gospel even though it is not comfortable, but I will do it. I’ll get out of my comfort zone.
If that’s your desire to obey the command of Jesus to make disciples will you raise your hands?
You know what? If that’s your commitment to get out of your comfort zone, why don’t you stand up I’ll pray for you.
If that’s your commitment, stand up so that today you will remember You made a commitment to Jesus to get out of your comfort zone.
Maybe your Dgroup, maybe God wants you to start a Dgroup. Maybe some of you, God wants you to share the gospel with your loved ones.
Whatever it is, I’ll pray for you.
If God is speaking to you and you need to get out of your comfort zone. Some of you are so comfortable in whatever you are doing now and God is saying, you know what don’t be satisfied with that.
The Bible tells us you must attempt great things. Attempt big things for God and expect great things from Him.
If God is big, do not make plans so small that you can succeed without Him.
You must make your plan so big that without God, we are doomed to fail. I believe if we do things with God’s help, it will be successful. Amen.
So I pray for you that you will multiply yourself. You will impact lives, impact millions of people.
So can I pray for all of you? All right, raise your right hand or both hands.
Lord Jesus, I pray for this group of men and women as they are willing to get out of their comfort zone, to share the gospel, to make a difference wherever they are, to be used by You.
They will do what You want them to do. Go where You want them to go.
Help us not to be tied down to our boat, but to be willing to get out of our comfort zone.
Bless everybody here tonight. In Jesus name we all pray, Amen and amen.
God bless you!