How Gullible are we?
Illus. By Richard Crow
A missionary on furlough told this true story while visiting his home church in Michigan, "While serving at a small field hospital in Africa, every two weeks I traveled by bicycle through the jungle to a nearby city for supplies.
It was a journey of two days and required camping overnight at the halfway point. On one of these journeys, I arrived in the city where I planned to collect money from a bank, purchase medicine and supplies, and begin my two day journey back to the hospital. Upon arriving at the city, two men were fighting, and one was seriously injured. I treated his injuries and told him about Jesus Christ.
I then traveled two days, camped overnight, and arrived back home without incident. Two weeks later I repeated my journey. When I arrived back at the city, I was approached by the young man I had treated. He told me he knew I carried money and medicines.
He said "Some friends and I followed you into the jungle, knowing you would camp overnight. We planned to kill you and take your money and drugs. But just as we were about to jump your camp, we saw that you were surrounded by 26 armed guards!"
At this I laughed and said that I certainly was all alone out in that jungle campsite. But the young man pressed the point, saying, "No Sir, I was not the only person to see the guards. My five friends also saw them, and we all counted them. It was because of those 26 armed guards that we were afraid and left you alone."
At this point in his message, a man in the audience jumped to his feet and interrupted the missionary and asked the exact day that incident happened. The missionary told him - and the man excitedly told THIS story - "On the night of your incident in Africa, it was morning here, and I was preparing to play golf. I was about to tee off when I felt the urge to pray for you. In fact, the urging of the Holy Spirit was SO STRONG, I called men to meet me here to pray for you.
"The man said, If you were here with me that day to pray please stand up?" The men who met together to pray stood up. The missionary wasn’t really concerned with who they were - but he wept as he counted their number -You guessed it - there were 26!
James 5:16 NKJ
16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Righteous defined; acting in accord with divine or moral law : free from guilt or sin.
How do we become free from guilt and sin? By accepting Jesus as our personal Savior and allowing ourselves, to be washed by the blood of the lamb that cleanses us from all unrighteousness!
Who is righteous? Christians are the righteousness of God right?
Who's righteousness is it? His righteousness, becomes our righteousness.
How do we see our needs met and healings take place in our lives?
By praying fervent prayers right? What is the definition of fervent?
exhibiting or marked by great intensity of feeling : zealous or diligent prayers...
But TBS. (The Bible says) it takes more than feelings for our needs to be met!
The Bible says it takes faith and the faith of a mustard seed can move a mountain.
the Bible also says that everyone has a measure of faith.
However much that is, it is a measurable amount and it's more than enough to do whatever it is we need to do! If a speck can move a mountain, then I would say we have been wonderfully equipped!
Thing is, unless your willing to use it it's useless to you!
Hebrews 11:6 NKJ
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him
You could substitute the words fervently and zealously.
He is a rewarder of those who fervently seek Him!
He is a rewarder of those who zealously seek Him!
We have already Established that we are and have the righteousness of God, through our relationship we have with Jesus right?
We already possess what we need, to move the hand of God in our every situation.
So why aren't we using our faith more and believing in the possible of what we already have?
When we think of examples of great men of the Bible that had faith and exercised their faith and saw Great miracles take place! we think of men like Abraham, Moses and Noah.
Truth is, they were individuals just like you and I. They had the ability to rise to the occasion and use their faith! And God met them at the level of their expectation.
The Bible says that God is not a respecter of persons and what he did for them He will still do today for you, if you are willing to fervently seek Him!
Exodus 14:15–16 NKJ
15. And the Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.
16. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it...
The issue with Christians today is not that we are not praying, but how and how often!
Christians are praying all right, but it seems like rather than staying prayed up and continually serving God. They want to only have a convenient relationship with him and only serve him and pray when its necessary.
This stems from not relying on God 100% all the time, but instead only when we think that we can’t handle things on our own, it seems we pray.
We are praying, “God I need this, God I need that, God, please… God, do something about my situation by tommorrow, God I need you now, God can you hear me!
No doubt this past week, millions of people were praying exactly like that. Hurricane Matthew was knocking on everybody's door step. And no doubt their were Christians that we're praying fervently and once again God stayed true to his word and rewarded those prayers. And instead of having catastrophic results, only minimal results were produced by what they had hailed, the storm of the century!
God Certainly is good!!!
Or how about this one, God if you get me out of this jam "I promise to live for you and I'll serve you and I'll give my tithe and I'll etc. etc. etc.
Even though we may all have never been in jail before, we all have had a jailhouse conversations with God! We have all pleaded for a need to be met with God right? Amen?
Isaiah 58:19
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
No doubt, we have all been there and probably prayed more than one time like that before ourselves. God hears us loud and clear the first time when we call on Him, in fact He loves it when we call on Him.
He’s ready, willing and able to help us, the moment we do.
The thing is though, we don’t have to pray pleading, desperate prayers all the time to get His attention.
He wants you to use the authority He has given you to pray fervent, powerful, expectant prayers!
To plainly speak to your mountain and expect it to move! To boldly command and to “stretch out your hand and your faith” and see miracles happen.
If God didn't want us to have an expectancy to see new miracles happen in our lives, He would've never allowed the statement "greater things shall you do then I did" that His Son Jesus made before He left to return to Heaven!
When Moses stood at the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army right on their heel’s,
the Bible tells us that he prayed desperately and cried out to God!
But what did God tell him, “Why do you cry to Me?” Why are you whining to me?
There is a time for you to cry out to God and there is a time for you to step out in faith and use your authority. You fervently pray about it and then you let go of what you can do, expect in faith and let God be God! Amen??
God told Moses, “Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. In essence what He was saying was, you know what to do, just do it!!
Mother Teresa was quoted to have said this and I'm sure that if Moses would have read it, he could've related to it...
“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.”
While we don‘t possess a rod like Moses had, we possess and have access to something far greater than he ever had.
”The “rod” we have today is the name of Jesus.
As you take authority and command in Jesus’ name, your “sea” will open, your mountain will bow down and your problems have no choice but to flee from you.
For TBS every knee and I also believe every need also has to bow to what Jesus has already Victoriously done for us!
A lot of believers don’t realize that Jesus didn’t say, “Go and pray for the sick”?
He said, “Go and heal the sick.”
Matthew 11:4-6 MSG
4-6 Jesus told them, “Go back and tell John what’s going on:
The blind see,
The lame walk,
Lepers are cleansed,
The deaf hear,
The dead are raised,
The wretched of the earth learn that God is on their side.
“Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourselves most blessed!”
He wanted us to be able to walk in confidence, He wanted us to focus on what we possess through our relationship that we have with Him.
That’s why God allowed Him to and He spoke the words, “Greater works shall you do, then I have done”
He wanted us to know and realize, see all I’ve done, pretty amazing huh?
But the fantastic news today and every day is, you are capable of this and a whole lot more!
Jesus is our power source and if we abide in Him and abides in us, then we can walk in confidence, knowing we have access to what He has access to!
Matthew 10:8-10 MSG.
Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood. Tell them that the kingdom is here.
Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead. Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons. You have been treated generously, so live generously.
9-10"Don't think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don't need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment!
Christians need to stop pleading when their asking all the time when they pray, and start using the authority that they already have in Christ.
The last thing Jesus told the church,
Mark 16:15-18 NIV.
15. He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
16. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
17. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues;
18. they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
And they will do what? GET WELL!! Church, God wants you to go and use the authority that He has given you. And as you go, miracles will flow and follow you!
God is the God of possible, it doesn’t matter how you feel or whether you feel like you are worthy of what you are asking Him for.
Its not about you! Your not the one who is responsible for delivering the results, so stop acting like and thinking for one more minute that you are! Your only responsibility is to use the measure of faith, that God has already generously equip you with!!
Its not about what we can do on our own, its about what He already did. His Victory already took the fight out of the fight!
His Victory is what makes it possible for us to accomplish the impossible, if we will only have faith to believe that it is possible!
God wants you to Be confident and know just as Jesus was given authority, so have you been, by your relationship you have with Him.
Illus: by George Rennau
A freshman at Eagle Rock High won first prize at the greater Idaho Falls Science Fair, April 26, 1997. He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to alarmist practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide."
And for plenty of good reasons, since it:
· Can cause excessive sweating and vomiting.
· It is a major component in acid rain.
· It can cause severe burns in its gaseous state.
· Accidental inhalation can kill you.
· It decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes.
· It has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients.
He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical. Forty-three said yes, six were undecided, and only one knew that the chemical was H20 (water). The title of his prize winning project was, "How Gullible Are We?" He feels the conclusion is obvious.
The accuser has been trying to convince Gods people since his fall from heaven and especially now as the end draws closer to the coming of our Lord and Savior.
That all the things that God promised us, really aren't for us...
The miracles that Jesus did, was for that time and not today…
And if any of the promises and the miracles were possible, we're not worthy
to receive them let alone help others obtain them!
How Gullible are we?
*We can be victorious today, because He has already been victorious for us!
*We can possess our healing today, because He has already obtained it and paid the price for it!
*We can do greater works then Jesus did in this world!
*We can live the abundant life and help others to do the same and so much more
then we ever dreamed possible.
*Because Gods word declares and promises we can and that's enough!!
Wether or not we do them, is up to us!
I believe God is pouring out His spirit right now...calling all us us
to a new level this morning. Wanting us to know that we are only inhibited
in the things we do and attempt in our lives for the kingdom, by our
expectations of His willingness to do what we fervently ask and expect Him to do!
Let's pray!
