Miracles: What do you believe

*Today is miracle offering Sunday: Giving moment at the end.

*Explain the Cards

*Ask God to speak to us as we read the word today

2 Kings 4 (ESV)

1 Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord, but the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves.” 2 And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.” 3 Then he said, “Go outside, borrow vessels from all your neighbors, empty vessels and not too few. 4 Then go in and shut the door behind yourself and your sons and pour into all these vessels. And when one is full, set it aside.” 5 So she went from him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. And as she poured they brought the vessels to her. 6 When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another.” Then the oil stopped flowing. 7 She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”

INTRO / CARD AND PRAYER MOMENT

We are in a season of miracles. The Vision of God always requires the miraculous because without the miraculous one must wonder is it even a GOD-SIZED vision.

To me, this vision we have from the Lord, i believe is a GOD sized Vision. It doesnt make sense. It isnt something that just anyone can do, it is something deeeply spiritual and therefore set apart by and for God.

Do you have a VISION…. and a SUBSEQUENT need for a miracle like that?

Grab that card on your seat _ we created this for you

I asked the team to create these so that you could write down: what Miracle are you believing for.

Lets take a momentTake a moment right now and ask the Holy Spirit: whats my miracle? what is my desperate need? What am i crying out for God to help me with?

(take a minute breathe, and just ask the Holy Spirit to show it to you)

It could be a miracle to buy your first home

It could be a miracle to meet your life’s partner/future spouse and get married

It could be to bring someone back to faith & the house of God

It could be to get out of debt

But whatever it is… i wonder this morning, if its according to His will, Would you be willing to believe for it today? and take a step. to write it down?

Take a minute now… and write that miracle down

just to recap the past few weeks as we have been studying this passage, this miracle, but also the miracles

the makings of a miracle. What goes into it? what composes a miracle?

It all begins with NEED

what is your need?

All miracles come about because of a GREAT need. Think of the miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes.

*Then it requires SACRIFICE

so we asked ourselves the question….What do you have? What do you have in the house? the widow had nothing she said… except. Except. so often we miss the miracle ingredient which is often what God has ALREADY placed in our lives. Oil, Relationships, blessing.

What do you have? what you have, regardless of how you view it, is precious and amazing to GOD himsel.

But every miracle needs something that cannot be missed. and that is FAITH

She had faith. That Elisha would help, so she cried out, She spoke to him, She obeyed him, She was faithful to his word. She had FAITH.

so we need to ask ourselves the question: what do you believe?

So what do you need

what do you have

…. and WHAT do you BELIEVE.

DO you believe that the most outrageous miracle you’ve ever heard of God would do for you?

i want to take a moment to address doubt. its interesting that we doubt this part of the spiritual life isnt it?

why do we doubt the existence of miracles… especially in our own lives?

a lot of us just dont believe its possible: well we will get to you in a moment (when we return to our texts)

but there are some of us that think we dont deserve a miracle.

Were not GOOD enough for a miracle to happen to us. And well, theres no really easy way to say this: but i would say to you… THAT YOUR RIGHT.

You nor i EVER deserve anything from God… let alone a supernatural miracle!

its a miracle that were even here right now

breathing in air right now

walking on this earth right now.

driving ourselves home from church this morning

I want you to think about it - On our best day we wouldn’t qualify for the grace of God - so what makes us think we have what it takes to deserve a miracle.

What are you going to do with that thread of doubt? What overcomes doubt? FAITH does.

“There is a Miracle in the OFFERING” / In every offering to God, there is a miracle. and every miracle we could ever hope to see with our own eyes naturally is first seen spiritually by our FAITH SIGHT.

You have Supernatural SIght as a Christian.

You have EYES that can see with FAITH. Faith in the UNSEEN

1.THE CENTER OF A MIRACLE IS FAITH

the central piece, the pinnacle of any and every miracle is the faith thats IN the Miracle.

THAT GOD CAN DO THIS: or said another way: ONLY GOD CAN DO THIS

Who can raise the dead? Who can PART an ocean? Who can turn water into wine? who can save a wretch like me???

the center of a miracle is faith in Gods ability and a total detachment from our own ability to make it to get it to force it… to have it

**here is a tip: when its too big for you - its perfect for God** It was a GOD-SIZED NEED

*our need as a church is big. we are a NEEDY church. We have a need for larger facilities now to cincompass what God is doing and what God is going to do. This is a MULTI-GENERATIONAL Vision. God is a god who declares himself as a God of the generations: Abraham Isaac and Jacob. This project to build a building is for nor not Just Isaac but also for Jacob. Its a miracle work of God

we currently can fit around 550 seats in this auditorium, the one we are believing to build will have at least 1500 Seats. three times the capacity.

But did you know before we ever were in here the seats you sat in, were a miracle, We had a seating campaign where everyone came together and we purchased these seats: but a chair. Some people bought WHOLE ROWS. Whats cool was that people bought one for themselves and then in FAITH, bought one for someone they were believing would in Faith come and find Jesus here. You might be one of those people. The actual seat your sitting in is a miracle. You in that seat is a miracle.

So now we need to make room and buy more seats. our next step is to believe and see $1.6m raised to be able to step into the first phase of building the auditorium where the seats will be!

But what is really critical to see this happen? faith.

The center of the miracle is the FAITH thats in the MIRACLE>

the Miracle thats in the Offering is the Faith thats in the offering:

What did this woman do - when Elisha said: How can i help you

Was her faith activated when she went off to get the vessels?

was her faith activated when she began to pour the oil out?

No - i believe her faith was found in one word: Except

2 Kings 4:2 (ESV)

2 And Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me; what have you in the house?” And she said, “Your servant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.”

“except” or Just this. or “there is this one thing that i have”

what about you.. what do you have? … is there something God is showing you that he has already put in your life?

we often miss the thing thats already in our lives

*all the way back in exodus i’ve been getting inspired lately & i found this early miracle sign that God did for moses… but watch here what God says to moses as he wrestles with doubt and his faith that God had called HIM and that the people of God would FOLLOW

Exodus 4:1–5 ESV

1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ” 2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

What is in your hand?

Because God will make use of it!

God will do a miracle in your life, with what you already have, so that others will believe also. They will have FAITH because of What God has done for you.

The sign will make them wonder: is God real?

is this FAITH business for me also?

Is there a God in heaven who truly does care about me?

(there is a greater purpose to your life: you are teh dearly beloved of the lord, but there is purpose and plan for your life which extends beyond the life you just live - There are people around you that need to know about this wonderful, miracle working God….

So at the epicenter of all miracles is FAITH: God can do this

2.THE CENTER OF OUR FAITH IS JESUS

Faith in the Lord Jesus - is the center of all who we are, who we focus our attention on

There was an outside who understood this more than anyone else: the centurion in Matthew 8

Matthew 8 (ESV)

1 When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. 2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

5 When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.

“As you have believed”

What moves mountains in the spiritual realm is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. that he can do it

The centurion recognized the Authority that was in and on Jesus. He called him Lord, He said i am unworthy, and He said just say the word. You can do it. I know you can

if you are in here today and wondering about yoru own faith: how do you have mighty faith like we read about in the teh FAITH hall of fame in our bibles:

The names are amazing:

what is the key component of it all - Faith

but what if your here today and your question is “how can i have any faith”

well simply put - Just put your Faith in the ONE… WHO HAS all the Faith you need: JESUS.

If you say well i dont have mich faith - yeh but will you trust Jesus and believe He can do it? now we are getting to the essence of what Christian Faith is all about: BELIEF IN JESUS and JESUS ONLY (for all our needs both eternal and temporal).

Have faith in the one… who has ALL FAITH.

Maybe this is what the APOSTLE PAUL knew so well when He wrote to the church in Ephesus and he said

Ephesians 3 (ESV)

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Jesus is th epicenter of our faith

all we need is him.

Who wants this church to grow more than us? Jesus. All we have to do is believe in him and declare “now to him who is able to do……

to build his church and the gates of hell will no prevail against it

MIRACLE OFFERING MOMENT