Strange Things

“Strange things”

10/2/11

I have in my lifetime seen some pretty strange things. There was one time that I was fishing on the Elk. I cast my line to the bank and while I was reeling in and when I lifted my pole to pull my bait in and cast out my line again, a bass followed the minnow out of the water and jumped into the boat. I never had to set the hook, the fish just jumped into the boat. I have never seen anything like that before, and never seen anything like it sense. A fish jumping in and flopping around in the bottom of the boat, now that is strange. The fish must have known that I am a catch and release.

In the Bible there are all kinds of stories about strange things. We all know about the plagues that God used to free the children of Israel; the rod turning into a serpent, the river turning into blood, the frogs, lice, flies. The diseased livestock; the boils: the Hail storm; the locusts, the darkness, and the straw that broke the camels back was the death of the firstborn.

We read in the book of Kings about a floating ax head. Daniel served up as dinner in the lion’s den, and the lions loosing their appetite. The three Hebrew Children cast into the fiery furnace and not sensing a hair on their head. The Bible is full of strange things. Today we will look at one of them.

Luke 5:26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, we have seen strange things today!”

As Christians we should always be seeing strange things. Not strange as in weird as in strange, but things that we have no explanation for other than it must be God at work. That is what I want to see and you should too. You should want to see God working in your life, in your family, and in your church. Let me give you the ingredients to do so. First and most important you need…

The Person

We read about this person in Luke 5:17 Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem.

These religious gurus came from all over…for what? To have some big revelation? Some big revival? No they came to see who this man was who was doing these strange things. Jesus! That is the first thing anyone needs…Jesus!

Acts 4:12 Nor is there no other name under heaven giving among men by which we must be saved.

If you want to have some strange things happen for the good, then you need to have a relationship with Jesus. When you have a personal relationship with Him, you will experience change. I’ve seen the drunk who after accepting Jesus, never to take a drink again. You become a new husband, a new dad. You become a new wife and mom. If you truly enter into a personal relationship with Christ, you will change.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation; old things have passed away: behold all things have become new.

If you want your life to change for the good, you must not only have a personal relationship with Jesus and you must have the right one afterwards. When you do that then you will have the next point.

The Power

Luke 5:17 And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.

Now I don’t know if you have ever thought about this. But when Jesus was here on this earth, He was a man and within Himself, He had no more power than anyone else. Our text states the power was there, but not His power; the Lords.

Now the Trinity of God the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit is hard for most to understand, but we need to remember that while here on earth, He had no power. He was always praying to His Father where His power came from.

And you need to realize that you within yourself have no power either. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST who strengthens me. Who strengthens me? Christ. That is where our power comes from.

Think of it like this. Say you have a mustang. It’s got the big engine in it with some aftermarket add on to really sup it up. You can have it all shinny and clean, full take of gas. But if you done had a battery in that car, you have nothing but a pretty car and a full tank of gas. You need power to make the car run.