Greater: Digging The Ditch Series

And Elisha said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you, nor see you. 15 But now bring me a musician.” Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him. 16 And he said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Make this valley full of ditches.’ NKJV

Slide 1: Sermon Series slide

What stands in the way of us really doing greater things in Jesus name and power? I hope you took the time to reflect on last week's bulletin scripture which said:

Slide 2: Scripture slide with

John 14:12 says: Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do greater things than these.

Many times we struggle with doing greater things because we fail to believe enough to pray for and then trust in the Lord's promise. I love how George Barna that wonderful cultural analysts puts this in his book Maximum Faith. He writes and I quote:

“We read about the promises of God, but don’t experience their fulfillment. We participate in the institutional church, but find it less meaningful and satisfying than expected. We read the Bible, but generally lack a true understanding of the text, miss its richness and misinterpret its counsel. We vacillate between the letter and the spirit of the Law, and receive the hope of neither. We take solace in being religious but overlook the value of true spirituality.”

I often wonder why this is. Let's face it: we put faith in so many other lesser concepts.

There’s our faith in a retirement fund, a pension fund, and even our homes value. Some believe if we drag our kids to church that will be enough to somehow insure them and us that they won’t go crazy in their teens. We put our faith in traffic lights stopping traffic, that our government will protect us and even the water we drink will not harm us. However, all of it is suspect. Why? Because they all have a human component to them. The scripture screams this “Trust in the Lord” and from proverbs 3:5 “and lean not on your own understanding.”

Our humanness often gets in the way of God doing greater things in us and through us because we don’t really trust. We’ve seen the problem and its us.

To understand how we can do greater things, we have been, and will be looking, at a couple of well-known Old Testament prophets Elijah and Elisha. There’s a good story where the the nation of Judah is at war and they have been traveling a great distance. The men are tired, hungry and really thirsty. If they don’t get water quickly to the troops and the beasts of burden won’t be much of a force to reckon with. So the leader comes before Elisha. May God give you eyes to see the truth on your bulletin, ears to hear in a way that awakens your heart and a heart that pumps God's truth through you in a new way::

And Elisha said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you, nor see you. 15 But now bring me a musician.” Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him. 16 And he said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Make this valley full of ditches.’ NKJV

Of course you remember the rest of the story. The water comes. The people and the animals are quenched. The troops go on to victory. However, for many of us we never have seen God work in this way or our overly analytical mind has reasoned away the power of God in our lives. As such, when we are called to move ahead in faith, we fail but not because God doesn’t want to bless us but because 1) we either never begin or 2) we limited God by not thinking big enough.

As humans, I think our lack of trust comes out most often by our love for underdog. We always long for the under rated to win the football game, the basketball tournament or any other competitive endeavor. I think it’s why we love shows like America’s got talent, American idol or the Voice. We love to hear the story of the improbable and then see God break through.

Slide 3: Susan Boyle Picture

Do you remember the Susan Boyle? The 48 year old Scottish cat lady in sensible shoes who believed God had given her a gift in her voice and decided to refine it wherever she could. She sang Karaoke to the opening of festivals around Europe hoping to get noticed. And then one day in Glasgow, she tried out for Britain's got talent. In 2009 she sang the song, “I dreamed a dream” and became a musical sensation with over 100 million people watching her performance on youtube. Since then, she has produced three albums and performed for people all over the globe.