Once Again

Once Again

The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. He said to his father, “My head! My head!” His father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. 2 Kings 4:18-20

When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me why.” “Did I ask you for a son, my lord?” she said. “Didn’t I tell you, ‘Don’t raise my hopes’?”  Elisha said to Gehazi, “Tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hand and run. Don’t greet anyone you meet, and if anyone greets you, do not answer. Lay my staff on the boy’s face.” 2 Kings 4:28-29

Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy’s face, but there was no sound or response. So Gehazi went back to meet Elisha and told him, “The boy has not awakened.” When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the Lord. 2 Kings 4:31-32

Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy’s body grew warm. Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. 2 Kings 4:34-35

1. God loves a Repeat Performance!

If He’ll do it then, He’ll do it now.

If He’ll use them, He’ll use me.

“Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” 2 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!” 1 Kings 17:19-20

 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. Ephesians 3:2

2. God often uses momentum instead of a moment!
Stop asking if, and start asking how.

Small miracles lead to big miracles.

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Hebrews 10:23

Discussion Questions:

What is something you said, “never again” to.

The woman still went to the man of God in her pain. What does that teach us about where to go when we’re hurting?

Elisha had to act more than once before the miracle happened. Why do you think God sometimes requires persistence?

What keeps people from trying again after disappointment? What practical step can you take this week to “try again”?

Thank you for listening to the Relate Community Church podcast! Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. If today’s message spoke to you, share it with a friend or leave us a review to help spread the word. To learn more about Relate Community Church, visit us at www.relatecommunity.com. You are always welcome here, and remember—you are loved

Transcript

Welcome And What’s Next

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Thank you, band. Thank you, band. All right, all right. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to church. I'm glad you're here. I hope you came ready because I came ready. Pull out your Bibles, pull out your notes. We are a note-taking church. We're gonna dive right into um a message that really picks up from last week, even though last week was a wonderful day honoring uh mothers. And it was a it was for the since Mother's Day and leading into uh students and we just a lot of things happening as we and next week we're starting um our summer series. We'll be we'll be working through the ten commandments for 10 weeks. We're looking every week at one of the ten commandments and shaping our our faith, shaping our uh devotions to God, and just I believe getting stronger through the summer, sharper through the summer. That's why we're calling it Summer in the Forge, because we're taking God's commands and his desires for us, not just a list of rules, but looking at why and what it does in us, and uh it's gonna be a really powerful time for us. So, how many of you guys were here last week? Okay, awesome, awesome. Then you know Pastor Angela brought us a message on courage that was so challenging and encouraging, helping helping to take steps. If you're at a place where you where you're struggling to figure out, okay, God, what do I do? Where do I go? I don't know if I can do this. That go back and watch last week's message, but uh we're gonna kind of take it to another level this week. I want to uh I want to dig into the idea that sometimes we get kind of stuck where we are. Sometimes it's uh um it's frustrating. There, there are people in the room, there are those of us we get frustrated and we struggle. And uh I don't want to look at at us being in a place where you can't take a step. I want I want to look at the areas of life. The there are places where I don't know if I want to take a step. Maybe I've given up on taking a step. Maybe I have just completely written off this area of my life, this part um where I've been hurt or I've been frustrated, and there are some things that we give up on. So I want to talk about trying again and dreaming again and having faith that starts new. And uh to do that, I want to talk real quick about the the things that we have completely given up on. So uh I was making a list of things this week that I have just I've decided that I no longer need these things in my life. And uh a couple years ago, Grace was asking me to go skydiving with her, and I said, Grace, I don't need to go skydiving. Uh I'm I there at no point, I think for the rest of my life I don't need to go skydiving. This week, Pastor Angela and uh a few of you guys went swimming with sharks. I I said, Why would you do that? I don't ever need to do that. And she got home and said, I'm done. I never need to swim with sharks again. I've checked the box two weeks ago. Uh, Anna, where's Anna? Anna went skydiving. I said, Anna, how many times do you need to go skydiving? Uh I that's off of my list. At a certain point, you get old enough to realize that uh at some I don't know how old I realized that I never need to do late night Taco Bell again. I'm done. That part of my life is over. I don't remember the last time Angela and I went to a movie and it was like movie starts at midnight. Used to do that. I no longer need to do a midnight movie again. I'm done with that. Sleeping on a bed that's not my bed, I would prefer to go back to my bed. Or sleeping somewhere that's not a bed. Uh that part of my life, hopefully, I carnival rides. I never need to do carnival rides again. I have a long list that's longer than I'm proud of. Um here's the thing. It's funny that we don't we don't just give up on late-night Taco Bell runs. We we've given up on things like being bold. We've given up on things that require faith, and you're like, well, I don't I don't need to exercise my faith in that area. There are relationships that we've just given up on because it's either too tough, or the the lashback from the effort is feels like more than we're willing to put in. Maybe it's things that you've tried in ministry or in your walk of faith and your belief systems that you're just like, ah, is it even worth it? I don't know. Maybe it's someone that you believed in for a long time and they kept letting you down. Maybe it's a marriage where you feel like I just don't know if I can do this another year, another month, another week. I don't, I don't know if I have it in me. We tried counseling, we tried this, we tried that. Maybe it's a a a kid or someone that you desperately care about and they've walked away from God and you don't know how to get them back, and you're just like, Well, I don't know. You just throw your hands up. That's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the place where you may have given up. But God hasn't given up because God can honor faith that tries again. God can get behind you where I sometimes feel like the Holy Spirit is just tapping on my shoulder and urging me, just go. Come on, I'll go with you. And I'm like, ah, I don't know. I don't know if I can do that. Or or I've already tried that. How many of you ever said, I already tried that? There are things I've already tried. Well, I can tell you this, there's a difference between trying and trying. I I watched my kids do that. Like if I told my little when when they were little today, I can talk about this because it's been 20 years. When they were three years old, and I said, Hey, go, did you brush your teeth? They

The Things We Quietly Quit

SPEAKER_02 6:10

said, Yeah, I brushed my teeth. There's a they may have brushed their teeth. Or if uh or they may have come back and said, I couldn't find my toothbrush. I tried to do it, but I couldn't do it because I couldn't find, I didn't have any tooth toothpaste left. Well, did you look under your sink and did you look where the did you did you look over where you left your toothbrush last time? Did you did you try, try, or did you just try?

unknown 6:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Done around this topic. And um the top five skills employers look for when hiring someone, number one, in fact, I'll just tell you this that five years ago, five years before this study, the number one um skill that employers look for was that they were looking for a strong worth work ethic or if they could get the job done. And uh it's changed a little bit. And now uh the first is critical thinking and problem solving. Number two, teamwork and collaboration. Number three, now we get back to professionalism and strong work ethic. There is a tie there. That uh can you get the job done? Are you willing to try, but try, try? Or are you just gonna be able to throw your hands up and say, well, I tried to do it, but it just we couldn't get it done this week. And then number four, oral written communication skills, number five, leadership. Employers, people value the ability to get a job done and to try and to where you have a grit or a uh I I think I think that's really the connection I want to make. That if we have real faith, the kind of faith that God wants us to have, the kind of faith that that God desires for you and me, that's a faith that has a grit that says, I'm not just gonna try, but I'll try, try. I'm gonna, I will put my head down and I will put as much effort into this because I believe that this is supposed to happen. I believe this is what God wants. And so I'm gonna do everything that I can to try and make this happen. And by the way, if you're trying to get the promotion, if you're if you're a young person and you've been working and you're trying to get attention and uh you're trying to get your bosses or your employers' intention, uh attention, let me just say that if you put your head down and you decide that I'm gonna be the person that can get the job done when no one else can, that gets you a lot of attention. Yeah, that gets you a promotion when other people uh have been there longer. Oh, but this person's been there longer, but this guy can get the job done. All right, so I want us to kind of camp out today in uh 2 Kings, but I I want us to look at uh a man named Elisha. Now, if you've read through the book of uh 1 Kings, 2 Kings, and you've seen uh Elijah and his uh successor Elisha, they have similar names, and this is such a powerful story of um of mentorship and calling. And when you see God choosing these men as prophets to lead the people of Israel and to and to give his word, these are guys who are really like the lone man standing in the wilderness saying, Hey, we have to do the right thing here. And uh, this is a powerful, powerful uh read to read the stories of Elijah and Elisha. They do both of the miracles, signs, wonders. They're preaching God's word, they're leading God's people. And uh, between the two of them, there's such a um an incredible dynamic. Um, Elijah was known for being hairy, and Elisha was known for being bald. At one point, uh, he was made fun of for being bald, and uh the people who made fun of him got severely punished by God. But at one point, we're gonna we're we're gonna look at just Elisha today for a little for a little bit. And Elisha, the miracle that I want to look at that God does many miracles through the life of

The Difference Between Try And Try

SPEAKER_02 10:25

Elisha. Many, many miracles, but there's one miracle in particular where there is a uh a woman and her husband that are trying to have a baby, and uh the prophet comes along and she begs the prophet, please, we'll do anything. Just we want God's blessing. We want to be able to have a baby. We want a child, and he says, Okay, one year from today, you will have a child. And I want to uh pick up uh pick up the story in 2 Kings chapter 4, verse 18. And we're gonna try to read through it as quickly as I can, but I want there's some some points that I want you to take with you today. It says that the child grew up, so that this baby, miracle baby, is born. The child grew up, and one day he went out to his father who was with the reapers. They were working in the field. He said to his father, my head, my head. And his father told the servant, carry him to his mother. Now, just uh can you recognize that right there? All the guys in the room know what this looks like. Hey, go see your go talk to your mom. Baby's complaining, probably just like usual. Babies, uh, the boy has some some needs. Please go go. I'm working right now. The next verse says that after the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon. So she held him, and it says, and then he died. So she held him, and something's wrong with him. She's worried, they're worried, his head hurts, and all of a sudden he dies there. And um this is a moment I think that you may not have ever lost a child, but many of us, most of us, have sat in a place where we have desired something, we've dreamed about something, we've hoped for something, we've believed God for a miracle, we've had uh uh a destiny maybe that we've grabbed a hold of or that we've glimpsed and that we haven't quite achieved completely. We haven't seen that that miracle come fully to life. Maybe it's just a couple years old, or it's just a it's just still a dream, but we've we've had it die in our arms. Maybe it was a kid that's in your life that's a that that's maybe not died, but maybe has just been lost in trouble or lost in the world, and you feel like I had great hopes for them to know God or to to achieve something. Or maybe it's for a marriage or a relationship or an idea that you had. There's this thing that I think all of us can relate to where we've had a an expectation somewhere, and then all of a sudden this thing, it just kind of dies in our in our arms. There's a moment of pain, and then all of a sudden it feels like this is the end of it. And can I just tell you this that when God brings something to life, when God gives you a miracle, when God answers a prayer, then not only does he answer the prayer, but also he maintains the miracle. And we're gonna see that happen, but the it's not it's not just like a light switch, it's not just like uh, okay, God here's this boy, and okay, God fixes it real quick. I want you to watch how it comes to pass. So here's what they do when the when the boy dies. It says, when she uh she she runs and she goes to find the she seeks out the prophet. Where's Elisha? He prayed for this for this boy, for this miracle. Now I've got to go find him. So when she reached the man of God in verse uh 27 at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. There's lots of things that could be said here. She knew where to find him, she did go find him, she knew who to run to. Gehazi, who was his servant, came over to push her away. Like, hey, quit messing with the prophet, quit mess. And it says that, but the man of God said, Leave her alone. She's in bitterness, she's in bitter distress. But the Lord has hidden it from me and not me. Why? So God hasn't revealed to him exactly what's going on yet. So he's like, Okay, we're gonna feel this out. And so she says, Did I ask you for a son, my Lord? She said, Didn't I tell you, Don't

Elisha And A Dream That Dies

SPEAKER_02 14:40

raise my hopes? Like, why did you give me this boy? Why did you answer my prayer? Why did you give me this miracle if you're just gonna let him die? So Elisha said to Hazi, tuck your cloak into your belt, take my staff in your hands and run. Basically, he sends him back to the boy, he says, Don't greet anyone you meet, don't stop, don't get delayed, don't get distracted. And then if anyone greets you, do not answer, lay my staff on the boy's face. So the very first thing that the prophet does is he takes his staff, gives it to his servant, and says, Run, you're younger than me, you can run faster than me. You go and then lay my staff on the boy who has died. Lay my staff on the boy's face. There's a process, and it doesn't always make sense. Like we could try to rationalize why would he lay the staff on the boy's why? Like, what does that have to do with anything? We don't have to know the answer. Some the the things of God don't always make sense to us, but there is a process. Watch what happens. We're gonna get through this. Gehazi went on ahead and laid the staff on the boy's face, but there was no sound or response. So the very first step that the prophet takes, nothing happens. So Gehazi went back to meet with Elisha and told him the boy has not awakened. And when Elisha reached the house, because he then goes himself. Well, if that didn't work, let's try something else. He finally gets there. He says, There was the boy lying dead on his couch. He went in, shut the door, and the two of them and prayed to the Lord. Now we don't know how long he prayed. This could have been five minutes, five hours, five days. We didn't we just know that his first response when he arrives is to pray. I'm assuming it's not that long of a time, but he begins to pray. But he looks and nothing's happening. How many of you ever prayed and it looks like nothing's happening? Are y'all following the story here? But he still takes action. I think that before you recognize anything happening in this story, you have to realize that God's purpose and God's plan for you it is a process, and there are steps, and there are there are actions to faith requires action, and that's not what I want to focus on, but you need to know that. So watch what he does next. I what I and I'll just give a little a warning here that if I feel like the steps that that go into this miracle are so weird. First off, go put the staff on the boy and put it on his face. Okay, well, sometimes there's obedience. Sometimes God asks, God asks Abraham to do crazy things. He does, and then God shows up. Elisha tells his servant, put the staff. He nothing happens, and then uh here comes so what Elisha chooses to do is so weird. In verse 34, then he got on the bed and laid on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands, as he stretched himself on him, and then watch what happens. The boy's body grew warm. So now the boy's body, we know that he got there so late at this point that the body was already cold. But now, after several steps, the staff praying, now he lays out on the boy, and after step three, now we start something has happened. It's not the response that we were looking for, it's not he's alive, but something has happened, and so here's where uh I feel like Elisha gets a little bit perplexed. And Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room. So in this moment, he's tried three things, and yet he turns around and starts to he's warm, but this is not what I prayed for. God, what are you doing? This is not what we dreamed of. I we pray I asked you, God, to bring him back to life, and he's just warm. I've done everything I can do. And this may be the place where you're at with your dream, with your marriage, with your relationship, your kids, your finances, your health issue. There's a thing that you have carried and fought for and believed for and bled for, and all of a sudden you're just like, I've done the things. You told me to X, Y, and Z. I did all three of them. And now you're like, Okay, God, I guess I'll just let it sit. I guess I'll just wait and see if God shows up. And I imagine Elisha is pacing the floor. He just says he walked back and forth. He didn't just stand up and make a trip around the room. He probably was, God, what are we doing? I got everybody outside the house. I've already come here. If I walk out now, they're just not only will I be embarrassed, but you'll be embarrassed, God. I came this whole way, they came for us. And so Elisha probably has every kind of thing running through his head. What am I going to do with my kid? How does that make me look? When they when they're making these kinds of decisions, what does it look like? If we're praying, I went down for prayer. I walked all the way down and prayed with a prayer partner. I said, I want God to heal me, and you didn't, and nothing has happened. God, what are we doing? Should I just keep going down there for prayer? Or do I keep praying or do I put my staff back? Or do I what am I gonna do? This is the kind of the throw the hands up moment. Shrug your shoulders. I'm like, uh he body's warm, but that's not alive. The good thing is he doesn't get stuck here. Watch what happens. It says he walked back and forth in the room and then got on the bed and stretched out on stretched out on him once more. Would you just say that out loud once more? That's the title of my message today, and it's once more, because this is the key not only to Elisha's faith here, where God speaks and God moves and he takes action and nothing happens, but it's in the once more, where all of a sudden he's done everything he can do, and yet he just does the same thing again, once more, and it says, Then the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes. There's some things in your life, there's something maybe, not things, there's something in your life where you have thrown up your hands, you shrugged your shoulders, you've been pacing back and forth. Maybe it's not days, it's weeks or months or years where you've just been like, oh, I mean, I wish it had gone a different way, but

A Weird Process Toward A Miracle

SPEAKER_02 21:30

he didn't wake up, he just it just got warm, but nothing really happened. My challenge to you is are you gonna have the kind of faith, the kind of faith that God wants us to have, where we once again, once more, I'll do it again, God. I'll walk down there again, I'll lay down again, I'll put my staff down one more time, I will reach out, I'll take a step again, even though it feels like nothing's happening, because it's in that once more that the life comes. So I hope today we'll be your once more. Even though things may not have worked the first time or the second time or the third time, you need faith to try again. You're looking for a financial miracle or a marriage miracle or a health miracle. Today can be your once again. Two things I want to show you about God that I hope will challenge you and inspire you to take your once more and once again step out, once again believe, once again put your faith into action. So number one, write this in your notes. Number one, God loves a repeat performance. God loves a repeat performance. In other words, if he'll do it then, he'll do it now. Like if it may not be your faith that you're leaning on right now to say, okay, God, I'll take a step again. No, it may be my faith that you're leaning on because I'm telling you that if he can do it, then it may be you thinking back of all the just read your Bible. That's why reading your Bible is important. If he can do it for Elisha, he can do it for me. If he can do it for Pastor Jason, he can do it for me. Elisha saw miracles over and over and over. And I think after three efforts, he's walking, walking the room has to be part of his his thought process, not just saying, oh God, what are we gonna do? I think also in that same uh discussion with himself and praying with God, there has to be, God, you I just I don't know what to do next, but I know there is a next because I've already seen you do this too many times. The circumstances change, but God doesn't change. I know that I may not have been in this room before with this boy, but you already you gave this boy is a miracle. And if he can bring me a miracle, then he certainly can bring the miracle back to life. And if he started it, he'll finish it. Hebrews 13 says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so when I read God's word about how God rescues David out of his problems and picks him up out of the muck and the mire and places his feet on solid ground, or when God whenever God saves uh Elisha and he calls down fire from heaven, I know that God can rescue me from any problem that stands in front of me. But it also means that I have to remind myself about those things. Because if I forget that God can and does do miracles, and if if I forget that he did it then, then I'm not gonna remember that he'll do it now. Think about the Israelites crossing the Jordan River. Last week, Pastor Angela talked about that the courage it took to put their foot out, and then it says that the water stopped and they walked across on dry land. When they got to the other side, you know what God told them to do? He said, I want you to stack up 12 stones so that every time someone walks past these stones, and whenever the next generations come up and they ask, What are those stones? you're gonna tell them, We put our foot out and God stopped the water and God brought us into this land. If there's nothing like that in your life and you never remind yourself, God did it. If I'm not telling my kids the story of how God rescued us, then they're never gonna be able to say, Well, I remember he did it for my mom. I remember he did it for my dad, I remember he did it for grandma, I remember what grandpa said. If I don't have that in my life, then I'm just gonna wonder, I don't know if God can do this. I don't know if this is a thing, is this the kind of thing God does? If he'll use them, he'll use me. Some of y'all aren't getting it. I feel like you're not amening to the to the degree of power that is in this, that if you're not carrying the story, if you're not telling the story, and if you're not reminding yourself, he can do it again. I want to show you something really cool. So we've talked about Elijah and Elisha. So Elijah, his predecessor, his his mentor, the hairy one, he did miracles that were uh recorded. He stopped the rain. He multiplied food, multiplied oil, he raised the dead,

Once More Faith That Acts Again

SPEAKER_02 27:00

he uh called the rain down from heaven, he called fire down from heaven, he caused the river to split. And you know what else is amazing? That the same exact described miracles that Elijah did, Elisha did those same miracles. Six times recorded. Now, Elisha had double the miracles because he asked for a double anointing, and there are twice as many miracles recorded, but those specifically, including the a dead boy being raised to life. This is one of those moments where Elisha says, I know this can happen, I know that God can bring this boy back to life because I saw my mentor do it. We're gonna read in 1 Kings chapter 17. This is Elijah, and whenever he brings a boy back to life, watch what see see if you can recognize what happens here. Elijah says, Give me your son. He took him from her arms, from his mother's arm, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and he laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I'm staying with? By causing her son to die. Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, Lord my God, let this boy's life return to him. You see anything? Are you seeing how Elisha could have said, I saw Elijah do this already? I don't know how to bring a boy back to life, but my mentor, my pastor, did this, and he laid right on top of the boy and he came back to life. Oh man. Here's what I think happens. I think we see people doing things for God and we get intimidated. And we're like, oh man, they're special. They're they are so uh, they must have God's power in a way that I that I could never do that. Uh something amazing happened when when Angela and I, before we planted this church, we went to Alabama to meet with a group of church planners to to go and have a have conversations and be taught, like, okay, what does it look like to start from zero from scratch? And we were like, okay, I don't know how to, I don't know. I want to go meet with some church planners because we've never done this before. But I can tell you that one of the biggest things that we walked away with after sitting with all of these church planners. At one point there was a room of probably 50 church planners, and they're they're telling stories and they're giving us all of this insight into, hey, when we did this, we this is how we did this, and this is what happened, and this is what God did. I was amazed and thought, wow, that's miraculous, that's amazing. But more than anything, you know what I walked away with? I we we sat in the room and turned to each other at the table we were at. I remember us talking about these are just like regular people. Like there's nothing special about them. Like I've seen pastors that I was so blown away with, intimidated by, like they were charismatic and uh they could speak with eloquence that I never could imagine. I could never put myself in their shoes. But these people, when we sat with the church planners in Alabama, we walked away thinking, actually, that one guy that we took, he was kind of an idiot. If he can do it, I can do it. Like, I'm not joking. I was thinking like that this guy, I don't know how he did what he did. If God can use him, then God can use me because I'm a big idiot sometimes. I'm the big idiot. I mean, it gave me so much confidence seeing that if God could do

God Loves Repeat Performances

SPEAKER_02 31:05

it for them, then I know he could use us. You need some people like, in fact, there are people every year since we planned, there are people who are thinking about planning a church that come and sit in this room or at the theater, and I just think they're definitely gonna feel confident when they leave because they're gonna see that they're gonna be with me for a little while and they're gonna think I can do this. But that's a I I don't want to stand up and make anyone feel like that I'm something special and you should look to me. I need you to realize that I'm just a guy who's trusting God, and I've watched enough other people do it in front of me to say that there's nothing God can't do. It may be looking to the aisle, the person sitting next to you and saying, if God can use them, he can use me. If God can, if God did it then, he'll do it now. Now we're starting to feel like maybe God can do this. I I want you to feel that that courage, that confidence to try again starting to rise up in you before you leave today. God doesn't use us because we're great, but because he's great. The power that we it's not the power that God put that, it's not my power, it's his power. And yet we disqualify ourselves because we look at us and we think, oh man, we need somebody else. We need somebody qualified for this. But Ephesians 3 says this now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us. He can do more than you think, he can do more than you than you've given him credit for. But God isn't looking for ability, he's looking for availability. And so just like Elisha standing over a dead a dead boy, you have to be willing to say, Yes, God, I'm here. All right, I'll try again, I'll step out. This is weird enough, God, but I'll try my staff. Okay, this is even weirder. I will lay on top of this boy, I will put my eyes on his eyes, and my mouth to his mouth, and my hands to his hands, and I will do exactly what I've seen, and I will I'll walk that path. And so he does all the things, and he's questioning. And here's the second thing I need you to realize before we close. I need you to realize this that God likes to see to see a repeat performance, he'll do it again, but oftentimes the the miraculous thing that we're looking for, God uses momentum instead of a moment. When you look at what Elisha does in in for this miracle, when you look at this miracle, he sends his staff with his servant, he goes and he prays, he lays on the boy, nothing happens, he gets warm, but step by step, and then he gets up and he's he's walking back and forth, and even in even the process where the boy comes to life, it says he sneezed seven times. We don't know if those were like seven consecutive sneezes, and then his eyes open, or maybe it took an hour for seven sneezes to happen. We just know it was a process, the staff. Then he shows up and then he prays and then he lays and then he does it again, and then he starts to sneeze. Is it possible that the process for the miracle that God has been trying to do in your life that you've gotten three steps in, or five steps in, or seven steps in, and you quit too soon? Is it possible that rather than just this moment that you've been praying for, God, what when's it gonna happen, God? That you should have just you gotta stick with it. You gotta have a faith that says, Okay, I'll try again, I'll go again, once again. Let's go. His word tells us to despise not the small beginnings. God loves to see the the work begin to to get started, to make the effort. I think we have to stop asking if and start asking how. Like, God, what does the process look like? What's the step I need to take? No matter how weird it looks, no matter how uh if you're that one that's walking back and forth right now and you've been just kind of shrugging your shoulders and saying, Okay, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Maybe the answer is not that you start praying, God, if you'll just do this. You're asking God to do something, but you're not asking God what I should do. What's the step? What's the the process that you want me to? How do I do this, God? Like, you want me to lay down somewhere, you want me to step out somewhere, you want me to say something, do something, give something in the offering that affects my own finances, you want me to say a prayer for someone else. I had a conversation with uh one of the guys in the church this week that he was so blown away by what God was doing in the lives of other people that he didn't even know because he stepped out and started doing something for someone else. It's the small miracles that lead to the big the big ones, and yet we keep looking for the big one, but it's the momentum of we have to celebrate that that small miracle that God that God gives us celebrating those little ones because the big ones come behind the little ones, it's not perfect yet, it's he's not alive yet, but he's warm. This is not what I want it to be. I don't think this is what God designed it for, but we're we've taken a step. We're getting there. God is up to something. Hebrews 10 says this let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Would you tell somebody next to you, he who promised is faithful? He who promised is faithful. Nothing reminds me of this more than uh when we were meeting in the theater, and a lot of you guys raise your hand if you were meeting with us in the movie theater.

Momentum Miracles And Small Steps

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When we were at the theater, we were so desperate to find God, give us a building. God just show me where the building is. I kept praying, God, show me where the building is, and I kept thinking, this building won't work, this building won't work, this building won't work, it's not working, this building won't work. But when we walked into this building, you know what my first thought was? This building won't work. This building is already dead, big time. This property is dead, and yet we began to work, we began to tear down walls and fix things and lay ourselves out. I remember um before we owned the property next door, we didn't have enough for you for we we could not meet here because there was no place to park. I remember uh Joseph and Christine, brother Joseph, we met to pray on the property one time, and there was a fence over here on the side of the building and other people's property. And I remember uh brother Joseph and Christine, they said, let's we need to walk over there on that property. I said, Someone else, we can't, that's somebody else's property. They said, No, no, no, we're gonna walk over there and we're gonna we're gonna march onto that property and pray for it because that's our property. So we walked and we looked. Where's the owner of the property? They're over there. We walked, they came out and we talked to them, but little by little a process of coming back to life started happening. It's not what I thought it would look like, it's not what I thought. God, here's the building, let's move into it. There's a miracle that God wants to bring into your life that's not okay, here's the miracle, it's done, it's live. No, it's a process, and you gotta start walking and start taking a step and start believing for it and start watching this momentum come to life. And so, last question, and then we'll pray. Where is the where's the place in your life where you need to believe again? Where you need to try again, where you need to have a scrappy faith that doesn't give up whenever tough when it doesn't make sense, and you just decide, I'm going again. And where's that place in your life where you have been looking for the big miracle? And God says, it's not gonna be one big miracle, it's gonna be seven small miracles put together that get you there. I'm taking you where you want to go, I'm taking you where I promised you, but it's not all in one. It's gonna be a hundred steps, not one step. You have to surrender yourself to God's way of doing things. So I want to pray for you. Would you stand up on your feet and let's let's surrender our hearts to God, surrender our wills to God. I'm gonna pray for you, then we're gonna worship. Would you just pray with me? God, we thank you that you are a God of miracles, that you do miracles, signs, and wonders. And if you did it, then you'll do it now. And if you did it for them, you'll do it for me. And so we trust you with every relationship, every health report. God, we trust you with our finances, God, we trust you with our marriage, God, we trust you where that situation feels dead and gone and hopeless. And God, we believe that you can show up, that you can bring life where there hasn't been life, that you can put us into a place where we are standing in power, standing in authority, standing in a place of victory. We thank you for helping us to take those steps and to walk toward it in peace of day. Before we go, I want to give every person in the room an opportunity. We are here because God put us here on purpose for a purpose. He created your life to live and he created you for abundant

Prayer Invitation And Next Steps

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life. Maybe you've been struggling and feeling like this doesn't feel like life. This feels like struggle and pain and heartache. And why am I even trying? I want to encourage you and invite you to put your life into his hands today. And even though you may have tried before, you may have made that effort, you may have felt like I've already done this and it didn't change. I want to challenge you to try again. And go all in with a God that loves you more than anything, a father that wants to take you by the hand and lead you not just through this life, but into eternity for Him. And so I'm gonna I'm gonna lead you in a prayer, and I'd like you to say these words with me as we commit and recommit our lives to him. Would you just bow your head right where you are and close your eyes and just make that place where you're standing an altar before the Lord that this is a moment, maybe a once-again moment, a once more moment where, okay, God, this time I'm committing myself to walk with you, to align my life with your will and your purpose. I'm surrendering again. Whether it's for the first time or not, would you say these words and let's give our lives to Him so that He can lead us into that abundant life? Would you just say this, God, today I give you my life? I want to serve you, I want to honor you, I want to live for you. So take my life and give me yours. Take my sin and make me whole. Save me, lead me, and use me for your kingdom, and I'll follow you for the rest of my life in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Put your hands together. Thank you guys for coming with us and worshiping and opening up God's Word today. I'm looking forward to this week and the summertime as we kick things off. The prayer team is coming to the front if you want to pray with someone. Otherwise, God bless you. You just spend