The Building Program Miracle
by Darrell W. Johns
January 29, 2023 · Atlanta West Pentecostal Church (Lithia Springs, GA)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: 2 Kings 6:1-7, Jeremiah 32:27, Job 3:25

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/darrell-w-johns--the-building-program-miracle
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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second Kings chapter six and the sons of the prophets said to Elisha see now the place where we dwell with you is too small for us please let us go to the Jordan let every man take a beam from there and let us make there a place where we may dwell so he answered go then one said to Elisha please consent to go with your servants and he answered I will go so he went with them and they came to the Jordan they cut down trees but as one was cutting down a tree the iron ax head fell into the water and he cried out and said alas Master for it was borrowed so the man of God said where did it fall and he showed him the place so we cut off a stick and threw it in there and he made the iron float therefore he said pick it up for yourself so he reached out his hand and took it I want to preach with the help of the Lord on the building program Miracle God bless you please be seated this is an unusual story in the Bible and the Bible is filled with stories of the miraculous power of God if I ask you to name some of the notable miracles in the Bible that have kind of lucked in on you for years and years he might talk about the creation story or Sarah having a baby at 90 years of age he might talk about the plagues of Egypt crossing the parted Red Sea turning water or bringing water from a rock reigning Manna From Heaven crossing the Jordan River at flood stage as it parted before Israel you might remember the walls of Jericho falling down flat the sun standing still a talking donkey Samson pulling down an entire Temple Camille Barrel miracle in a famine the Sundial going backwards a drought started and a drought stopped there are at least 79 specific Miracles recorded in the Old Testament of your Bible at least 40 recorded miracles in the New Testament many more if you take what happened at one time the Bible is a book of Miracles if you were cataloging them according to Greatness or memorability I'm not sure you would put this miracle of the floating ax head on that list I was talking to one Avid Bible reader he told me they did not even really remember this story even though they've read their Bible through many many times it's a story of a building program miracle now in the days of Elisha uh there was a Bible College a school of the prophets and there were young ministers aspiring ministers that attended the school of the prophet enrollment was growing and they were out of space in their Bible School we don't know all the details but I imagine them trying to install bunk beds taking shifts in the dining hall getting creative with the use of other facilities and the reason I can Envision this is I worked at a bible college and church at the same time when the college was growing the enrollment was booming and we were out of room we had recently built large new dormitories but they were full so he decided that we would take those rooms that typically house two students and we would build bunk beds and put them in those same rooms so we could double our capacity in the Bible College I vividly remember that at Jackson College of Ministries so those bunk beds made everything else really crowded from then on when we had a problem with capacity we would always just say well we can Buck them we can bunk the guests in the classrooms we can bunk the chairs in the dining hall we can bunk the parking spaces in the parking lot of course you couldn't do that but our answer to every challenge of growth was let's just bunk them so you know at Atlanta West we're at a similar place here and we're trying to figure out but we can do about that the place they said is too small that's what verse 1 says and the sons of the Prophet said to Elisha see now the place where we dwell is too small for us it didn't used to be small but it is now and when I thought of this story The Lord prompted this story to my mind this past Monday I thought about us we're at a parking space we're at a foyer space today we're tied on Sanctuary space thank God we have two Services we're out of restroom space we're out of baptistry changing room space we are tight on office space classrooms we double and triple use our facilities all the time now we've tried but it would be difficult to Bunk the foyer you know what I'm saying like you all go out on this level and everybody else go out on that level you just can't bunt the foyer so the sons of the Prophet weren't not building just to build they weren't saying I've got a great idea let's spend a lot of money let's just build this campus bigger they were tight on space running out of room so they did an assessment and determined that the facilities were too small for their growing enrollment they didn't think the solution was to inhibit growth let's turn a bunch of God called men away from the school of the prophets let's just shrink this down to size so we can stay like we are without the pain of growth that was not the solution they had a plan and they had a very simple and straightforward building plan they went to Elisha who was the dean of the president if I could say it of the Bible School the school of the prophet and they asked him in verse two please let us go to the Jordan let every man take a beam from there let us make there a place where we may dwell so Elisha gave them a building permit and said go so here's what they said they're going to do we're going to go down to the Jordan they needed a reliable supply chain I don't really know and I've thought about this how far was the Jordan River from that school of the prophets they had to you know Hew the logs there cut them down and carry them back to the Bible College so we're going to go down to the river where there's an adequate supply of trees now historically later the Jordan River area was not known for having tall trees but they said we're going to the Jordan where there's lots of trees and then they said every man every student in the school of the prophets is going to go down they're going to cut down their own tree they're going to find a way maybe team up we're going to carry it back to the job site and that's how we're going to grow our campus we're all going to take our own responsibility or going to do our fair share and we're going to take personal responsibility for getting that beam back to the job site so I've thought about this a lot I'm not sure how big or how heavy the beams were probably bigger than one guy could throw up on his shoulder unless it was you of course I'm sure you would not have needed any help but in this story it's fascinating to me that no one got to exempt themselves to say well I'm I'm a I'm a prophet in the making but I'm too spiritual to cut down trees I'm going to prophesy a little bit I'm going to study the Bible a little more that's a good thing to do but everybody regardless of what class they were in in the school of the prophets all the majors the theology Majors the music Majors everybody in the school agreed we're going to go down to the Jordan River chop down a tree trim it up make a beam haul it back we're going to expand the campus so we can grow that was the goal we're going to make a place where we can dwell now the stories of Elisha in the Bible are typically Miracle stories but I like this story because it sheds a lot of light on the Practical side of ministry where prophets in the making but you still have to have a campus we've got something great to do for God but you still have to have a dormitory and a dining hall you've still got to have a place to dwell so you can learn and grow so you can multiply the ministries of Elisha and go out and do the work of God we need more space we're going to expand to build everybody's going to get involved we're all going to shoulder our own fair share of the load and Elisha said go he gave them permission to all go down to the Jordan cut down the trees make the beams bring them back build the building but then one of the sons of the prophets looked at Elisha and said Elisha we want you to go with us now this is really not a spiritual Endeavor but nothing we do in the kingdom of God is only secular it's all spiritual it's all connected did it is all integrated so if we're going to go down and do this physical labor we want you our Mentor our man of God to go with us and so they asked him to go and Elisha the professor agreed to go now he wasn't an architect it wasn't a contractor we don't know of anything that Elisha ever built before he was a prophet he was not a builder he was a farmer when Elijah finds him he's out plowing oxen all I know is he burned all the plows you know so he's not really a builder he's a burner I guess I don't know but the students knew that even a physical building program these spiritual oversight and involvement so Elisha goes now I've often said building programs and told other Pastor friends there's three things you need to know it will typically cost more than you budgeted it will typically take longer than you planned and it will typically you will find that there will be problems problems and in building this school of the prophets there was a problem and it came in the form of a job site accident there's a lot of activity going on in the Grove of trees down by the Jordan River I don't know how many students are in the school of the prophets at this particular time but when Elijah was carried up in a whirlwind the Bible said there were 50 sons of the prophets who were standing up on a hillside watching this transition from Elijah to Elisha so I'm going to go with 50 at least 50 Bible college students sons of the prophets that are enrolled in this school of the prophets and maybe they're all down there chopping down trees now it makes me smile a little bit because I don't know that all of them came from a family of lumberjacks some are farmers some were probably most were farmers but they go to school now they've got to go cut down trees perhaps they had cut down a tree before most likely but I started thinking about my buddies in Bible College doing something like this and every night coming back to the dorm sitting around comparing blisters on our hands and talking about that horrible hard work that we did all day long and the sacrifice we were making for the kingdom of God but I can just see those guys comparing War wounds at night but they're down there they've got their axes and they are chopping down trees axes are swinging wood chips are flying trees are falling Timber trimming all the limbs to turn a tree into a beam putting them on their shoulder taking them back to the job site to build a bigger place for the school of the prophets now I don't know how much you know about axes I started to bring one today but I was afraid it might really make somebody nervous so I just have a simulated ax today axes are pretty simple there's a handle a stick and there's an ax head and it is attached the ax head is attached to the ax handle and you hope it's sharp and you swing it with all your might and you chop down trees so I don't know exactly the the design of those axes but maybe they were tied with leather or maybe like more modern axes there is a a split and there was a wedge that held the ax head in place to the handle many of you are nodding because you know that's how it typically is so I don't know this guy is probably not very experiencing and I have a reason for saying that so maybe he didn't expect inspect his ax very well that day he's out there swinging for all he's worth and he is chopped and chopped and he he rares back with his action and when he brings it down into the tree it is suddenly lighter than it has been and he looks up just in time to see the iron ax head flying just past a fellow student's head Maybe out into the Jordan River and plunk out of sight the ax had flew off the handle I've known some people who have done that before an expression of speech that someone flew off the handle the ax had landed in the Jordan River disappeared I like to imagine ripples of water where it went down he's staring at that water then he looks down at his hand still grasping if he's right-handed I would be like this crasping the ax handle and wondering what in the world just happened fellow students may be thanking God that they were out of the way far enough to not be struck by the flying iron as it flew into the Jordan River staring in disbelief this was a job site accident a setback have you ever had a sinking feeling when you were working really hard doing your best and something just went wrong maybe it was in Ministry you were sincere you were hacking away doing what you could and then you wonder why in the world did something happen that was a mishap this was a building program setback the ax head is lost the tool is rendered useless you can't chop down trees but then ax handle and then to make matters worse this is the reason I think he might have been a little bit inexperienced is when it happened the first words out of his mouth to Elisha work but Mastery was borrowed I put myself in that guy's place I have been a poverty-stricken bible college student I cannot imagine what went through his mind when he thought about the Lost ax head and his inability to replace it if he could have afforded one he would have bought his own but he had to borrow it for the building project and now it is gone and he's really in a tough spot because all he can think of is he acts that is it disappeared in the Jordan River and the sinking sick feeling he had when it happened now they're trying to figure out what are we going to do maybe we get the tallest guy in the college hold him by his feet maybe he can dig around and find it maybe we'll get a dredge and we'll pull it with some rope and we hope we can kind of go along the bottom of the Jordan River and maybe just maybe we'll find where the ax head was and recover it I can think of a creative student in the student body saying no no let me tell you this that's too risky let's just start a GoFundMe account will raise the money and we'll buy another ax for the owner this was a really bad place to be if you're that guy so they go to Elisha and they tell him what happened he says it's a borrowed ax head and Elisha wants to know where where did it go in have you ever dropped something in the water and tried to Mark the Spot I have a lot of experience with what I'm talking about right now and was raised around but when I was a little boy my dad took me fishing went to friend and I knocked his real rod and reel over the side of the boat in the water I forgot the story till right now Mr Woodward he owned the dry cleaners my dad and uncle jack went back the next day they dove in they jugged around and believe it or not it was like the ACC said they found Mr Woodward's woodard's rod and reel in a canal in the Everglades thank you Jesus I cannot have bought him another one where where did it go in and so they kind of pointed around and figured out as close as they could to where the ax had entered the Jordan River Elisha does something that makes no sense at all he doesn't deploy everybody to grab hands sometimes the Jordan is shallow sometimes in some places it's deep but he goes and he takes a limb off a tree and he cuts a stick off the limb or the tree and he throws it in the Jordan River now iron ax had sink wooden sticks float he throws the stick in the Jordan River and I know they had faith in Elisha but I just envisioned some of those Bible school students who might get cynical at times rolling their eyes and like well that a lot of good that's gonna do but in the middle of a building program accident God worked a building program miracle that iron ax had that was not buoyant according to the laws of physics it could not and would not float but God defied the laws of gravity and of buoyancy and that ax had floated up to the surface of the Jordan River and Elisha said go grab it and that young man did it was a building program miracle and the story ends just like that and the Bible moves on to something totally different we don't know if they had a big party and celebrated the recovered ax head but this is how God works sometimes in very unorthodox ways you may have it all figured out how God should work in your life and you may think because things have gone wrong in your life when you're trying to do good that God has abandoned you or you've backslidden or there's something wrong with you but that setback is a setup for God to do something great in your life to show himself strong to perform a miracle in your life amen the Bible is clear about how God works in unorthodox ways Israel finds water they're so happy and they taste it but it is bitter and Moses cuts down a tree and throws it in the water and the bitter Waters become sweet there's a plague and many people are bitten by fiery serpents and so God says make a brass Serpent and hold it up on a poil a pole and whoever looks will live that's an unorthodox way to heal there's a king with a boil and the prophet says put a lump of figs and he'll be healed there's a pot of stew that is poisonous they've gathered gourds that were poisonous and the prophet throws in a handful of meal and that pot of stew is healed and made whole and they could eat it I don't understand why God chose a handful of meal to heal a pot of poisonous stew but I can tell you that God often works in mysterious ways and unorthodox ways to show us that the foolish person don't be foolish in your own eyes but trust in the Lord and believe God verse 6 just read it so the man of God said where did it fall and he showed in the place and he cut off a stick and threw it in there and he made the iron float amen I thank God for this amazing Miracle now Miracles occur when God suspends the laws of nature God made this natural world he created the laws of physics he created gravity and inertia and all the rest of them and it makes the earth a habitable place because of the natural laws that God instituted at creation but there are times we are facing an impossibility and God suspends the laws of nature the doctor said it is incurable but God said there's a cure the relationship seems irretrievably broken but God says there's reconciliation somebody says that you're addicted forever but God brings deliverance and sets you free there there is nothing that God cannot do a miracle can happen in your life when God suspends the laws of nature praise God he did it for them he'll do it for you amen the Lord said through Jeremiah behold I am the Lord you're not I am the Lord the God of All Flesh is there anything too hard for me you see God who made the ax head swim has the power to change the nature of the situation that you are facing I cannot tell you how that iron ax had floated I can just tell you that it did and I can't tell you how God is going to guide us as a church into the future but I can tell you he will I can't tell you how God is going to come through for you but I can just tell you that he will have faith in God Amen but it will not happen if you're complacent and stand still like the lepers you've got to make up your mind I refuse to sit here till I die all the options look Bleak but I'm going to believe God and do something you can stay in the boat if you want to but if you'll get out of the boat you may walk on water you never know know what God will do for you if you will believe him a building program miracle praise God in case you're behind let me catch you up this past Wednesday January 25th and our annual business meeting we voted to proceed with phase one of the proposed building program with a budget of seven million dollars and we really believe it will not cost more for lots of reasons but we'll see it was a momentous occasion an overwhelming show of support and that secret ballot vote that we plan to do so everyone could vote the way they felt that motion passed by a 98 percent vote of our voting members who were president and then when I call for the motion you know before we voted I uh I had thought someone mentioned to me what if Sister Louise Harper the founding member of our church what if she made the motion so I talked to Sister Harper to make sure she was for this and that there was no coercion there she was more nervous about having to say something publicly than how she felt about the future and you may not remember this or may not have ever heard this but this church started in the basement of the home of Merle and Louise Harper the Bible says despise not the day of small things or of Small Beginnings that will not stay small so I thought it was significant to invite sister Harper to make that motion she agreed she would and when she said I so move it was an incredible moment in our church that a 99 year old Saint would say I may not be around to to live in this building a long time I hope she is she probably will outlive most of us by the way but I believe in the Next Generation sister Helen Steinman was over here just waving away she confessed that she's 89 years old she seconded the motion many of you wanted to I thought it was significant by the way lots of ladies in a minute this year you'll hear that read next year they were both not just seconding emotion but seconding the future saying we're like Caleb give me this mountain we believe in the future we are well able to take this land amen there's much work to be done but it has already begun but until Wednesday our work was preliminary was necessary contingent on the vote of the church as I mentioned we will engage in these processes immediately we already are ready to move forward there are plans to be completed there are permissions and permits to be granted there are permits to be pulled they are contractors to be vetted there are hundreds of decisions to be made and there are millions of dollars to be raised and I can tell you not because I'm prophesying this but because I just know there will be problems I'm not hoping that something will fly off the handle but I just live long enough to know that something will not be perfect I don't fear the problems like job said the thing I so greatly feared has come upon me I've just learned that there will always be construction site setbacks but I've also learned that there will always be building program Miracles that God will show up in our mistake in our setback in our challenges God will show up and he will do the impossible humanly but nothing is impossible for God so when it happens don't be afraid not a sign that you're out of the will of God not an indicator that there's sin in the camp the sunken ax head as just an opportunity for a miracle I'm willing to endure the problem to get to the miracle amen this church was built on miracles this campus was built on miracles pre-1986. getting this land was a miracle buying the land on the corner was another miracle paying the bills in the early ages stages of the mortgage even after I came Miracle after miracle but then there's a really amazing Miracle story that I remembered and I verified the men were here the ladies were here they were going to pour concrete that day everything was in place but there was a huge rainstorm that was headed for this area that was going to inundate this job site with rain but people of Faith started praying and the men and women who were gathered here looked up in the sky I'm not sure if it was coming from the West as much of our weather does but they looked in the sky and they watched the clouds part and literally go around this job site and they poured concrete and they kept going because back then God did a building program miracle [Applause] and If He Did It Before he will do it again we're not all building a building and buildings are not our primary mission it is building people building lives and I want to bring this very personally to you today because many of you have made commitments some this year that you want to make room for God in your life that you're going to carve out time for more capacity for God you've made up your mind that you're not content to stay spiritually small or spiritually as you were so you've started cutting down some trees of consecration you started getting involved in trying to be better than you were last year but I just have felt in my spirit that some of you have run up against some things that you did not anticipate you never dreamed the ax head would fly off the handle and into the river and you've looked at your dream you've looked at your plan and you wonder what in the world went wrong you've questioned yourself you've wondered if you're doing the right thing or if you're in the will of God but I have come here on this Sunday to tell you that you're not out of the will of God that you're not doing the wrong thing that God is ready to perform a miracle in your life oh and what Satan has tried to convince you is just a setback and this is not right and it's not going to work for you God wants you to know today that he loves you and he sees your effort and he knows the mistake or the setback and he's going to get you through it and you're going to be better than you were before you started and when it is done God Alone will get the glory and no person will glory in his presence and we will know that Jesus Christ showed up and he did it for us and if you expect that would you stand to your feet how would you lift your voice to the Lord and would you say Jesus Count Me In I want to be in your will