"Miracles" - The Apostolic Connection

the Bible contains many many questions that are asked by the Lord but we have to keep in mind when we read the Bible that when God asks a question he doesn't ask it because he needs an answer he doesn't ask a question for his own benefit or because he's digging for information God asks a question because he wants us to consider the answer from the opening pages of the word of God God says to people certain questions that are designed to make them consider where they are right now and how God can take them from where they are right now into their future he says to Adam Where Art Thou and he says to Cain where is Abel your brother and he says to Moses what is that in your hand and he says to Elijah what are you doing here Elijah he says to Malachi will a man rob God and he says to Ezekiel can these bones live and he says to job after job is complained and whined a little bit for some 40 chapters God says where were you you when I laid the foundations of the earth God even addresses Satan in the Book of Job in the opening chapter and he says have you considered my servant job and when God robes himself in flesh and comes to this earth in the person of Jesus Christ he still keeps asking questions he says to his disciples why are you fearful and he says to two Blind Men do you believe that I'm able to do this and he says to an adulteress where are your accusers and he says to a lame man would you like to be made whole and he says to a crowd who touched me and he says to Peter Peter why did you doubt and he says to Martha Martha do you really believe this and he says to the disciples will you go away also he says to Peter do you love me more than these and he says to Saul on the road to Damascus Saul why are you persecuting me but perhaps most revealing question God would like us to consider is a question that he asked Jeremiah the prophet in the dark days just before Jerusalem's destruction the entire city is under siege by the enemy the enemy is in fact at the gates and the Prophet Jeremiah has been locked up just for preaching the word of the Lord in fact the king of the day said to Jeremiah how dare you preach and so Jeremiah has been persecuted now Jeremiah the prophet he he came to this conclusion that you know uh there's too much persecution against me standing for God in my day so I'm just going to be quiet I I'm G to be a quiet prophet and he said I I I I was weary and and so uh he he he just kind of shut it all up he said I'll speak no more in his name he said the fire of persecution in this culture is too much for me I'm just going to be a quiet Observer of my faith but Jeremiah encountered something that was quite remarkable after he uh stopped talking about God for a while he said there was a fire that was greater than the fire of persecution on the outside it was like a fire shut up in my bones and I got weary of forbearing and I couldn't stop and I just started preaching again feel a little bit like Jeremiah I know we're living in the end of the end times and the last of the last days and I know culture is out of control and politics doesn't have the answer and the media certainly doesn't have the answer and celebrities most surely don't have the answer and we are living in a day when everything is upside down but you know what in the middle of the fire that comes against us there's a fire of the word of God that is shut up in my bones so I'm still going to talk about the Lord because he's the only answer for everybody's problem amen in the middle of Jeremiah's situation God asked the prophet a question 32 and 27 of Jeremiah behold I am the Lord the God of All Flesh is there anything too hard for me that question is the question that God would like us to answer today and your answer tells you more about yourself than it ever would about God because God is a miracle worker and He Is A Healer but he's looking for people who actually have faith in his power and can answer that question with a resounding no there is nothing too hard for God I was reading uh a book uh in one of my flights the other day uh by an American Pastor named Mark Batterson and he put together some interesting things he he mentioned Thomas Jefferson one of your great Patriots uh Thomas Jefferson appreciated the teachings of Jesus but he was a child of the enlightenment as well and so in February of 1804 Thomas Jefferson went to work on the Bible with a razor and some glue he clipped his favorite passages out of the Bible um he worked with six different copies of the scripture so he could take back in front of the pages and he pasted his favorite passages from the gospels on 46 sheets of paper Jefferson included the teachings of Jesus but because he considered himself to be quite enlightened he excluded all the miracles of Jesus he deleted the Virgin birth he deleted the resurrection he deleted every reference to Miracles or the supernatural anywhere in between in the words of historian Edwin goad quote if a moral lesson was embedded in a miracle the lesson survived in the Jefferson Bible but the miracle did not even when this took careful cutting with scissors or razor now Jefferson's version of the Gospel ends with the stone rolled in front of the Tomb in Jefferson's gospel Jesus died on the cross but never rose from the dead in the Jefferson Bible Jesus is a good teacher but he's not God and that's because when you subtract the Miracles like Thomas Jefferson did you're left with a very wise but a very weak Jesus he is kind and compassionate but his power is missing that is not the Jesus we are worshiping today it's kind of hard to imagine I'm so glad when I read that that Jefferson was not a Canadian I I'm so glad it's hard to imagine somebody taking scissors and a razor to the sacred text of the scripture but in my experience there are people that although they wouldn't use scissors and razor they do the same thing all the time they cut and paste with the Bible they pick and choose their favorite verses and they ignore to death any verse that would challenge their lifestyle they rationalize the verses that are a little too radical they scrub down the verses that call for a little bit too much commitment and when we do that we are creating God in our image instead of Allowing God to create Us in His image I don't want to water down Jesus I don't want a Jesus who's a wimp or a weakling I want Full Throttle the entire counsel of the word of God cuz pastor already said it it's only the word of God that can change our lives man and if we do that even if we only do it in our mind we end up with this neutered gospel we end up with this powerless version of Pentecost we end up with this aposto Apostolic Church church that's really apathetic I don't want that I want the entire word of God I don't want to miss the Miracles that God wants to do for us I love reading about miracles in the Bible I love getting reports of Miracles from the mission field but you know what I'm expecting miracles in my everyday life I'm expecting Miracles as I live for God I'm expecting Miracles when we come to church there couldn't be a better Church to preach about miracles than the place that's having the merville miracle all the time and I I love that building down in that Valley yes I was looking for that steeple when I crested the hill today I think that is the most exciting thing I've ever heard of That's So Awesome how God Is providing that miracle for you you but on the way to that building and once you get in that building the real Miracles are not the mortar and the brick and the stone the cement the real Miracles are all of these lives that are being transformed the reason there's that Miracle is because of all of these Miracles and so I'm just here to tell you as your friend from Canada if you need a miracle something that you can't do something that the doctors can't do something that the counselors and psychologists can't do if you need a Bonafide Miracle you are in one incredible place today to receive your miracle from God you can receive a miracle that will transform you from the inside out you can receive a miracle that will take a marriage that was fractured and pull it back together you can receive a miracle that will change the trajectory of your family forever because the miracle worker that walked on the water is walking the aisles today The Miracle Worker that he came out of the Tomb he can bring you out of your situation today when I was reading batterson's little book on an airplane the other day he said you know we can see the miraculous if we just pick up a telescope you might feel like you're just sitting in church right now but that's an illusion it's a total illusion while you're sitting here the Earth is spinning around its axis at a speed of a th000 miles an hour every 24 hours our planet pulls off a Celestial 360 in the sky and we're hurling through space at an average velocity of 67,8 milph 87 times faster than the speed of sound so even on a day when you feel like you didn't get much done don't forget that you did travel 1,599 793 Mi through space while you were sitting on the couch eating potato chips no wonder you feel tired Batterson said you don't just have to look up to see the miraculous you don't have to just look through a telescope you can look through a microscope and see the miraculous because trillions of chemical reactions are taking place in your body every second of every day while you sit here you're inhaling oxygen metabolizing energy managing equilibrium manufacturing hormones fighting antigens filtering stimuli mending tissue purifying toxin digesting food and circulating blood no wonder you're tired and all the while your brain that miraculous thing you might feel like you're not too smart but listen to this all the while you're sitting here your brain is performing up to 10 quadrillion calculations per second using only 10 watts of power a computer would require a gwatt of power produced by a nuclear power plant just to pull off the same performance that your brain is doing right now while you're sitting in church and so Batterson made the observation I know people and you do too who say they have never experienced a miracle nothing could be further from the truth you've never not experienced a miracle because you are a miracle you're a walking talking living breathing inter acting miracle and if God can do that and if God can do that God can do anything and so I have to answer with a resounding no When God Says is there anything too hard for me no God there's no situation too dark too bad too far gone for God to get in there and do a mirror the the planet the planet that we live on it was Des designed with natural boundaries they Mark the outer limits of what is possible the speed of light that's a law it's like a fence the law of gravity it's a fence Newton's three laws of motion the laws of thermodynamics countless other laws scientific principles they form this fence around our lives and they are uh indicating what is possible you can't go beyond the fence of natural law because it's impossible uh so as a human being being those fences they uh they hold me in no human being can dig under natural law or climb over natural law or get around natural law it would be impossible those fences and those Sciences they give us the boundaries of human experience but I'm here to tell you there is a gate through that fence and his name is Jesus Christ and he can walk you through what is natural right into the Supernatural he can walk you through what is possible right into what seems to be impossible because Jesus was more than a rabbi teacher Prophet or Miracle Worker Jesus was God robed in flesh Jesus went into a tomb but he didn't stay there Jesus went back to heaven but he didn't stay there either he sent forth his Spirit the Holy Ghost into the church and so Jesus is here this morning and if Jesus is here anything is possible and nothing is impossible if Jesus is here we're not just depending on what is natural we're expecting what is Supernatural you walk with Jesus long enough and you will find yourself trespassing you'll inadvertently accidentally walk right beyond that fence of what seemed to be impossible and you'll stray into the impossible you'll stray into the Supernatural and not even realize it and someday you'll look around over your shoulder three weeks two months four years from now and you'll look back and say my goodness that was impossible but Jesus did it and I'm still living with a testimony of it because we serve a God who said I am the Lord the God of all is there anything too hard for me I got to answer no there's nothing too hard there's nothing impossible there's nothing impossible for my Jesus hallelujah hallelujah in your Bible in the gospels 34 distinct Miracles are recorded in the gospels some of them seem small some of them seem large some of them of them seem easier or harder to us but to God who is infinite all Earthly situations are equal there's no easy or difficult for God there's no big or small for God there's not even possible and impossible for God to our omnipotent all powerful God there are no degrees of difficulty because With God all things are possible and if you think that I'm making that up no scripture says it Matthew 19: vers 26 with men this is impossible but With God all things are possible Mark 9:23 if thou C believe all things are possible to him that believeth Mark 1027 with men it is impossible but not with God for With God all things are possible and if you miss it there the Bible even inverts it just for emphasis Luke 1:36 seven for with God nothing shall be impossible with God you can't serve him and end up with nothing you can't trust him and end up with nothing nothing is an impossible result when you're serving God With God nothing is impossible wow you say preacher I I know what you're doing this is mind over matter no this is Faith over matter it's totally different Faith does not ignore your doctor's diagnosis what faith does is it seeks a second opinion from a different medical office sir Faith doesn't ignore your financial situation it just goes to a different bank Faith doesn't ignore that you're in trouble at home and you've got all kinds of relationships fractured Faith just accesses a different count celing practice oh my goodness so we're not trying to sing ourselves into La La Land and just plug our ears and pretend nothing's going on no we know very well what's going on people in this room have incredible odds against them they have unbelievable problems and circumstances there are lives that are impacted by sickness by trouble by Sorrow by sadness there are all kinds of different people that have come here together today but what we have in common in this room is that while we have the first opinion from an office here on this planet we have a different office that we're talking to we're in communication with God most high we're in communication with the Healer of all diseases we're in communication with the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and so that's our second opinion you don't need somebody to give you a couple of little religious principles you've already tried that you know that won't change your life what you need is a second opinion from somebody that can actually do it what you need is a second diagnosis from a Healer that can banish every disease from every cell of every person in this room for without our God nothing shall be impossible oh my goodness but here's what I think we sometimes miss when we're believing for a miracle and when we need a miracle so badly God is waiting many times to see if you'll go after your Miracle or if you'll just sit around waiting for it to come to you now I'm not saying you can answer your own prayers because you can't if you could it would be dangerous for the rest of us we just don't need you to have all that stuff you can't answer your own prayers but but listen to me if you never ask God if you never pray to God if you never give him a request he can't answer them either here here's a statistic for you God will not answer 100% of the prayers you don't pray let me back up run that one by you again God will not answer 100% of the prayers you don't pray I I like taking that that statement that I've heard in culture for years I I just like to twist it around and say don't just stand there pray something because when you pray God can get involved When you pray God is attracted to that uh look at the Bible sometimes God teaches us that that you do the natural the thing that you can do and God will step in and do the supernatural the thing that you can't do you do the possible God will do the impossible that's it's not your effort that's making the miracle happen but on the same token your lack of effort could keep a miracle from happening in your life sometimes God just wants to see if you're serious uh read the gospels there's a woman with an issue of blood who pushes her way through a crowd that if you can believe it was jammed Around Jesus even tighter than we're packed in here today and she pushed her way through and they did not want her to be there because she had an issue of blood she was unclean under the law and everybody she touched Ed or nudged they were unclean for a week they had to go through all kinds of Ceremonies they had to stay home from work it was a real nuisance nobody in that crowd wanted her there and you know what she needed her Miracle so bad she didn't care that nobody at church wanted her there she said if anybody's going to get something from God today it's going to be me if anybody's going to get a miracle today it's going to be me I'll push my way through I'll offend anybody I'm going to get to Jesus and you know what she got her Miracle read the gospels sometimes people do the natural and God's attracted to it and steps in and does the supernatural look at those Blind Men crying out for Mercy look at bmus they said shush bmus be quiet you're disturbing everybody we're trying to listen to Jesus he said I don't care if you're trying to listen to Jesus I've got to get to Jesus and so he kept crying out Jesus thou son of David have mercy quiet B Jesus thou son of David have mercy on me bmus aren't you embarrassed you're making a spectacle of yourself he said you don't understand I was born blind you don't understand I can't see Jesus yet but if I can get to Jesus I'm going to be able to see Jesus somewhere in this room there's somebody that actually came to church with determination today I don't know what's going on in my life I can't fix it but if I can just get to Jesus if I can just attract his attention that's what our worship is about Jesus visits us because God inhabits the Praises of his people somebody clap your hands lift your voice like a trumpet