Making Your Impossibles Possible Part 1
Making Your Impossibles Possible • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Making Your Impossibles Possible Part 1
We live in a day where many impossible things, generations before us, would have never imagined possible. Consider being born before electricity, before cars were invented, before flight was possible and someone telling you these things would one day be possible. Or, that one day cars would drive themselves or fly you around.
I remember as a kid playing outside everyday, in the sun, cold, in the dirt, climbing trees, all because we had no concept of a video game. Then Atari came along, and that was the end of climbing trees and jumping ramps on our Mongoose dirt bikes. These joyous adventures were replaced with pong.
I remember rotary phones and hearing about computers that were as big as a truck. Now that truck sized computer was made possible to fit in a phone that fits in your pocket. And now people walk and drive watching their phones.
We now live in a day where anything is considered possible with man and his advancements in technology. Unfortunately, man has digressed in his morality. As a young boy, I would have never imagined it would be possible that our nation would spend decades murdering it’s own children. Or, that an entire generation would be confused about it’s biological, God given gender. And that the Body of Christ would put more trust in Google for their possibilities than God Himself.
But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Most people live by limitations rather than possibilities. If you are living in fear and insecurities; focused on what you don’t have, what you cannot do, and what your inabilities are, then you live by limitations. If you live in sin, making excuses, justifying your disobedience to the way of Christ, then you are living by limitations.
But if you are trusting in the Christ to whom you have surrendered your everything to; if you are seeking to be a God pleaser and not a man pleaser or a self-pleaser; if you are resolved that nothing is impossible with God; if you are believing His Word, casting down the vain imaginations, and letting go of the idols that have captured your soul, then you are living by His possibilities.
There is a Possibility Pattern of living that can allow God to work His works of possibility in your impossibles. Jesus shows us how to prepare our field for our impossibilities to become possible.
Let’s look at a great example most of you are familiar with in Matthew 14.
Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.
To us, miracles are years in the making. But to God, they are immediately when He intends. With the disciples, an immediate response to Jesus’ command was the first step to preparing for the impossible to be experienced as a possibility in their lives.
Half obedience is disobedience. Delayed obedience is still considered disobedience by God. Obedience in some areas of your life, does not cancel out the disobedient areas. You can pay your tithe, attend bible studies, be charitable, and quote Scriptures and have lots of good spiritual Christian intentions. But if you are filled with anger, resentment, un-forgiveness, sexual immorality, and compromising the integrity of the faith, then you are not living the obedient Christian life?
Does the Bible teach a disobedient Christian way of living? Did Jesus tolerant disobedient disciples? Did He count those who willfully and blatantly continued in pagan, worldly, sinful lifestyles to be counted among His followers?
If you are not following Jesus, you won’t hear His commands. If you are listening and responding to His commands, you are not following Jesus.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Jesus then demonstrates the next part of the Possibility Pattern, a prayer life, or a life that prays. Following Jesus means acting like Jesus acted, thinking like Jesus thought, and doing what Jesus did. Jesus found power, strength, focus, renewal, and so much more, in the power of prayer or communion with the Father. Most of us do good to just bow our heads in public and thank God for our fried chicken. A Christian life that is not a praying life is a life that may be Jesus affiliated but it’s not a Jesus follower.
Jesus went to pray. What were the disciples doing? I guarantee you they were not praying. They were trying to figure out why they were in the boat they were in. Sounds like many of us. We spend more time trying to figure out the mess we are in, instead of turning our focus to the Father. And like the disciples, we find ourselves drifting far from where Jesus is. We find ourselves being beaten by the waves of doubt and discouragement. And we listen to the words of the wind that everything and everyone is against us. The wind tells us that we cannot win. Until you develop a life that prays and listens to the voice of Jesus, you will always hear instead the voices of every wind that drives you further from the Master’s voice. Ephesians 4:14 admonishes us to “no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
But remember, the hour comes when Jesus shows up. When Jesus shows up, He is always making the impossible possible. They were in a crisis and Jesus shows up doing the impossible. Because in their minds, it was such an impossibility, they thought He was a ghost.
But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear.
They were so gripped with the fear of their situation, that they became gripped as well with the fear of their superstitions. They are living by the impossibilities never considering the possibilities of their Master. Never in their minds did they consider that this was Jesus calmly walking on a raging sea. Folks, this is so you and me.
I cannot count the number of times when there were raging seas of trouble and troubled winds raging in my life. And the furthest thing from my mind and heart was Jesus turning the moment into a miracle.
One reason we struggle with this is that we find such security in the familiar. We make an idol out of the boat we are in. It is easier to see the impossibilities than to trust God for the possibilities. We cling to the boat for safety and security in the midst of the storms in life. You have to turn your full attention to Jesus.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Like Israel wandering in the wilderness, they could not imagine God actually feeding them from heaven. They could not imagine water coming from a rock. Honestly, could you? Let’s be real. I am not a Moses much-less an Israelite crossing through the Red Sea.
I am more like a Peter. A simple fisherman still learning Jesus everyday. And look at how they cried out. Did they cry out, “Oh Jesus?” Did they cry out, “Abba Father, save us?” Not at all. They cried out in fear. Great fear.
They were good men seeking to learn of the Christ. But they still lived by the impossible. They had not learned Christ to the point of “Possible Patterned Living”. They had not learned that this man they were following was not just any man. He was a man who made the impossible possible. And He would teach them how to live the same.
But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”
So, immediately, Jesus is saying to you today. “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” Are you living by the impossible? Would you like to consider the possibilities of Jesus walking on your waters?