How Do I Make Room For The Tide?

TITLE: How Do I Make Room For The Tide?

I. OPENING ILLUSTRATION:

"Years ago, a wealthy businessman from London chartered a bus to carry a busload of urban children to the coast. There, the children spent a wonderful day at the ocean.

Many of the children had never left the city. Most had never seen the ocean. For one blissful day, they ran unfettered over the beaches. It was a splendid day filled with vivid memories.

On the ride back to London, the businessman went through the bus speaking with each of the children. Toward the back of the bus, he noticed a boy sitting alone with a wistful look on his face. In the boy's grimy hands was a bottle half-filled with water from the ocean.

He pointed to the bottle and asked, "What are you doing with that?" The boy replied that he was taking it to his mother because she, too, had never seen the ocean.

The businessman was quiet for a moment. He then asked the boy why the bottle was only half-full.

Without hesitation, the boy replied, "I left room for the tide to come in."*

*Illustration borrowed from Ken Gurley, "Leaving Room for the Tide" in Where Will Your Heart Be Buried? (First Church Publications: Pearland, 2006), 70.

Ephesians 5:18 NLT

"Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit"

Be filled with the Spirit. The verb for "be filled" is in the middle or passive voice. It means to allow oneself to be filled. Like the little boy coming home from the beach that weekend we are to make room for the tide of God's Spirit to swell in our lives.

There are so many things that we are powerless to do on our own. We cannot control the tide. But, we can make room for God to.

In the book of 2 Kings there is the story of a woman who made room for the tide to come in.

2 Kings 4:9-17 NLT

She said to her husband, “I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. Let’s build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.” One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to this upper room to rest. He said to his servant Gehazi, “Tell the woman from Shunem I want to speak to her.” When she appeared, Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tell her, ‘We appreciate the kind concern you have shown us. What can we do for you? Can we put in a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?’” “No,” she replied, “my family takes good care of me.” Later Elisha asked Gehazi, “What can we do for her?” Gehazi replied, “She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.” “Call her back again,” Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway, “Next year at this time you will be holding a son in your arms!” “No, my lord!” she cried. “O man of God, don’t deceive me and get my hopes up like that.” But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said.

She made room for the tide to come in. Making room for our miracles is not as hard as we sometimes imagine.

This morning's sermon is not filled with lofty theology or mystery. It is very practical and simple and attempts to answer the question:

How Do I Make Room For The Tide?

II. Introduction:

There really is nothing that we have that God has not given to us.

He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else (Acts 17:25).

Solomon asked the Lord, “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand." (1 Chronicles 29:14 NIV)

Paul wrote to the young pastor at Ephesus, Timothy, "Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment." (1 Timothy 6:17 NLT)

He preached in Acts 14:17 (NIV), God "has not left Himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”