How can I be sure not to miss out on God’s best for my life?
• How •can I avoid missing that door of opportunity which has been placed before me for me to walk through?
• How can I avoid limiting what God can do in my life, and thereby limiting what I can do through Christ?
None of us want to settle for second best. All of us as believers want to be all we can be in Jesus Christ.
• But there are attitudes which can either help or hinder us…
• We see that in our story today – one that can unleash God’s miraculous power, and the other to lock it up. One is faith, the other is unbelief.
This is the story of Jesus going back to his home town.
• Unfortunately, we see a climate of unbelief and wrong attitudes that limit the work of God.
• Can we limit God? Yes, by our unbelief. Not because He is unwilling or powerless – because we have chosen NOT to believe Him.
• The question for us to answer is, "Do we have similar attitudes? And if so, what can we do about them in order to assure that we do not limit the power of God to do His mighty works in our midst?"
As the story unfolds, we find Jesus coming back to His home town.
• As He and His disciples were there, He began to teach in the synagogue on the Sabbath day.
• As usual, His teaching was brilliant. He taught as one who had authority, and not as the Scribes.
• He gave them insight into God’s Word and they were astonished.
• They said, "Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him and such miracles as these performed by His hands?" (v. 2b)
Yes, they were amazed. And, in fact, they were asking some of the right questions.
• The problem came in their answers. Rather than allowing Jesus to answer for Himself, they answered their own questions.
• [6:2-3] He is just a “carpenter” who left town. He is just the son of Mary. He is just the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon. His sisters are here with us!
• In fact, the question was de-rog-atory, literally “Is he not a common worker with his hands like the rest of us?” And… they took offence at him!
• What they were portraying was not faith, but unbelief. Because in verse 6 “And he [Jesus] was amazed at their lack of faith.”
The message here is simple: Unbelief limits the power of God.
• Our text says that, "He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them." (v. 5)
• In other words, because of their unbelief, Jesus was limited. The power of God was held back because people refused to believe Him.
Let take a closer look at THE CAUSE
• What was the cause of their unbelief? Look again at what they say and we see a limited view of Jesus.
• They were limited by what they could see, by what they know and what they could understand.
• What they had before them was the Messiah, the Son of God. What they saw was the carpenter, the son of Mary.
• Their limited views kept them from seeing who Jesus really was.
• They had stereotyped Jesus and could not see beyond their own natural understanding of the carpenter’s son who grew up in their own community.
When Jesus calmed the storm in Mark 4:40-41
40 He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
• A distorted view of Jesus - who He is or what He can do – robs us of faith.
• And we lose out because of this. Same thing happening here with these people.
In much the way today, we limit what God can do because of our limited viewpoint.
• We must learn to see beyond our own natural understanding.
• We do not have to understand how a thing works in order to receive it by faith and to receive the benefit it brings to us. I may not understand electricity, but I’m not going to live in the dark.
• Thank God that a lot of things are possible for me beyond my ability to understand them.
The Bible teaches us that we walk by faith and not by sight. Walking by sight limits what God can do.
• And though we have a tendency to want to understand the end from the beginning, sometimes, we like Abraham, must leave where we are and journey to a place of which God has not yet told us.
• Sometimes we must respond to Jesus’ command "Only believe."
They not only had limited views, they had limited hearts.
• These people did not want to believe. (Even though they are amazed at His wisdom and miracles.)
Jesus, after all, was one of them.
• They knew Him. He grew up in their community. They were familiar with His family. After all, didn’t they know His father, and His mother, and His brothers and His sisters? They had watched Him grow up.
• How could this little boy who grew up in their neighborhood be anything more than they were?
• They not only couldn’t see, they didn’t want to see. They had limited hearts as well as limited vision.
The Bible says that they were offended at Him. Their own pride would not allow them to accept that He was so much more than they were.
• Jesus understood this. He said in verse 4, "A prophet is not without honor except in his home town and among his own relatives and in his own household." He knew, because of their pride, they would not receive Him as a prophet.
This was unfortunate. If they had received Jesus as the Son of God, they would have been the recipients of His blessings and ministry.
• But because they received Him as a man of the flesh, they lost their opportunity to be touched by the power of God.
• You see, limited views mean limited lives. Unbelief locks up what God can do in our lives.
THE CONSEQUENCES
They paid a price for their unbelief – (1) the power of God is locked up.
• Notice that it says in verse 5 that, "He could do no miracle there."
• It did not say that Jesus would not, it said He could not.
• Unbelief locks up the power of God. It limits what God can do in our midst.
God is no less powerful because of our unbelief.
• It is simply that He has designed that power to be used in response to faith.
• Just like there are natural laws in the universe, so there are spiritual laws.
• Things are designed to work in certain ways. Try as we might to make them work otherwise, we will not succeed.
• The power of God is designed to be released as we trust God by faith.
Not only is the power locked up, but (2) the blessing is limited.
• Jesus came to this town with a desire to minister to them.
• Because of their unbelief, what God can do for them was limited – verse 5 “…except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them.”
• Only a few believing folk were healed. The vast majority of them did not receive anything from God.
• Unbelief not only locks up the power of God, it limits the provision of God.
We see a spiritual truth here -
• Jesus was willing and able to do great things – without Him, we see nothing.
• Yet He can be present and nothing takes place!
• And Jesus tells us why – right diagnosis of the ailment – because of unbelief!
DON’T LIMIT GOD BY OUR UNBELIEF
• This can happen to us today. Not that we do not believe in Jesus.
• There may be situations or things around us that we got too familiar with.
• The world taught us so. People think this way, and we become deceived by what we see and think!
Very sad, but this is true also in our life. Today we can make the same mistake.
• We limit Him when we look at things – familiar things and situations – and not believe that God can do anything about it.
• We limit Him when we see ourselves – we know ourselves too well – and not believe that God can use us to do anything great.
• We limit Him when we look at our ministry over all these years – and not believe that God can do anything to change it.
• We limit Him when we see our church – and not believe that God will bring revival and save the lost through her.
• We limit Him when we look at our unsaved friends – and not believe that they can ever become Christians.
We limit God each time we choose to live by sight and not by faith!
So what’s THE CURE
What is the cure for unbelief? It should be obvious that the cure for unbelief is faith.
• But what is faith, and how do we receive it? Faith is to put your trust in Jesus.
• It goes beyond knowing some facts about Jesus. It is choosing to put our trust in WHO He is; WHAT He can do.
• It is the trust we have today for what Jesus can do in our lives. It is a trust born out of a relationship to Him. It is a trust which comes from knowing Him.
You see, we want to move away from a limited view and a limited heart – one is a lack of knowledge, the other a lack of will.
• But how do we come to the place where we really believe Him, where we really trust Him, where we are willing to step beyond where we can see?
• The important biblical answer to this question lies in Romans 10:17 "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ."
Faith grows as we give attention to what God is saying in His Word. Faith comes through His Word!
As we open the Bible and study it, as we seek God in prayer for Him to reveal, by His Holy Spirit, the lessons this Book contains, then we will begin to have the eyes of our understanding enlightened.
As we keep the Word in our hearts, faith will grow.
You see, faith must be nurtured. A believing heart does not simply happen, it is developed.
But we must approach the Lord with openness and expectancy. And it begins with a willingness to do what God says.
• You see, unless we are open to the possibilities of God, we will never see what can be, we will always be limited to what has been and what is.
• The challenge for us is to always maintain the attitude that God can do anything.
• We must let God be God and constantly cultivate that attitude of expectancy that will enable Him to do great and mighty things for us.
God is Almighty, but He has chosen to respect human choice.
• He can do great things in your life, but He will respect your choice. If you choose to disbelieve Him and trust yourself, He will respect that.
• He is not going to barge (intrude) into your life and do what He likes.
• The opposition to Jesus in His hometown did not come from the authorities. The opposition was inside – the people have no faith in Him. The lack of faith limits what they could have received through Jesus.
CONCLUSION
Let me close with this: John 14:12-14
12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Are there some blessings that I could have received in my life, but they did not come?
Is there something that I ought to be receiving today, but I am not?
Because of a lack of faith – because I chose to think my own thoughts, do my own things, walk my own ways?
And I am missing out on what God has for me?
Jesus did not stay long in this place of unbelief. He moved on.
• He did many powerful works in many places, spoke many inspiring messages, changed many lives, but none of these took place in Nazareth, His hometown.
Will this happen to us?
• Will doubt or unbelief hinder what God wants to do in your ministry or your life?
• Can we trust Him more? Listen carefully to what He says in the Word?
Today God want to bless us with more. Don’t limit Him by our unbelief. Trust Him and keep doing what is right!
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