Moving Into Miracle Territory Believing

This Sermon Preached on Superbowl Sunday

Advancing Into Miracle Territory

BELIEVING

The Gospels tell us about many miracles of Jesus.

He turned water into wine.

He made the blind to see.

The deaf to hear

and the lame to walk.

He raised the dead from the grave.

He took a man’s ear cut off by a sword and placed it back on the man’s head.

Jesus fed an enormous crowd one day with a small boys lunch of fish and bread.

Jesus spoke and the sea and the wind were still.

He is the man who walked on the water.

The final words of Johns Gospel are these.

John 21

v 25 Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

Jesus is undeniably the king of miracles and yet some have stopped believing.

Some have stopped believing that Jesus is still at work among us doing miracles.

One of the reasons that we don’t often experience

Jesus doing unbelievable wonderful things in our lives is because we are no longer believing that Jesus can do or will do miracles.

Some are already claiming defeat instead of believing that God could lead them to victory.

(PLAY CLIP) video clip "whole hearted" which is a mini clip from the FACING THE GIANTS film.

When it comes to BELIEVING too many are already welcoming defeat when they should be allowing God to deliver victory.

Such an example is found in the case of the Israelites and their invitation by God to enter the promised land and have victory but because they could not believe they suffered defeat instead of victory.

God calls us to BELIEVE with Determination

Take a look at Numbers Chapter 13 and I want you to look at two voices...

THE VOICE OF DOUBT and THE VOICE OF DETERMINATION.

First notice what God says...

13 The Lord said to Moses,

2 " Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.”

3 So at the Lord’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites.

These explorers are sometimes referred to as spies sent to spy out the land. That God had promised He WAS giving to them.

Sometimes I fea we would just as soon take another tour through the wilderness as soon as trust God for the miracle of entering the promise land.

That is the voice of God who has said in verse 2 I AM GIVING TO THE ISRAELITES THIS LAND.

Now look at the voice of doubt.

When these explorers or spies return from spying out the land God has promised this is their report in Numbers chapter 13 and verse 26

(look at verse 26)

HERE WE SEE THE VOICE OF DOUBT!

26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.

28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.

29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”

NOW HERE COMES THE VOICE OF DETERMINATION!

30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said,

“We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

(that is the power of believing)

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”

32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size.

33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

There are two voices

One is the voice of DEFEAT

and the other is the voice of VICTORY.

One of the voices looks at miracles and says "IMPOSSIBLE."

The other voice looks at miracles and says

"ATTAINABLE"

One voice is taking a BEATING

the other voice is receiving a BLESSING.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE ONE WORD DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE TWO VOICES IS?.......?