How To Prepare For The Miraculous We Must Become Bless-able (Part 1)

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1 How To Prepare For The Miraculous We Must Become Bless-able (Part 1) Intro: If you spend any time at all reading the Bible you will see that the miraculous happens. Things happen that cannot be understood by human rationale or scientific explanation. The supernatural is simply part of the Biblical experience. The question now is this: Is the miraculous supposed to be part of our experience today? Were these simply extraordinary events that God did back then but He doesn t do them anymore? I am convinced that God is still in the business of doing the miraculous. (WHY? Foothills 15 year history) I am also convinced the obstacles to seeing God do great things among us is not on God s end but ours. We can actually prepare ourselves prepare our church for a miraculous move of God. I believe that we are standing on the threshold of one of these times. God is waiting for us. We are about to embark on a journey together. God is asking us to follow Him as we remodel and purchase this property for His Kingdom sake. In order for us to succeed in a manner that brings Him the most glory, we must be willing to prepare ourselves. The month of January is set aside for this purpose. This could be the most important month in the history of our church. How does God want us to prepare? It begins by becoming bless-able. Becoming a group of people that are ready and prepared for God to move. HOW? Summarize the life of King Asa II Chron. 16:8-9 Don t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and charioteers? At that time you relied on the LORD, and he handed them over to you. The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on you will be at war. (NLT) Even though it appears like you won your strategy worked, it wasn t done God s way. Now, you have missed an opportunity for great blessing. We must understand that from God s perspective it s not just important to finish this project It s how we finish it that He cares about! 3 essential truths for becoming blessable people. 1. Realize Why The Lord Is Looking For People To Bless The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth This is an amazing concept. God is constantly looking throughout the entire population of over 7 billion people for people He can empower and bless. The sad reality is He passes up most people. I believe He passes up most churches. Page 1

2 It has nothing to do with His love. He loves all people. But just because He loves all people doesn t mean He blesses all people the same. Some people are simply blessed more by God than others. Do you want to know why? Why is God looking for people to bless and empower? Why is God actively doing this? God wants to advance His agenda on this earth through people Eph. 2:10 For we are God s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (NLT) God s blessing is not to simply bless for blessing sake. God s blessing is connected to His agenda on planet earth. God doesn t bless our agenda. He blesses us as we agree with His agenda. There is absolutely no point praying and asking God to bless you if you have no desire to know and follow His agenda in this life. (Lord bless me prayers) It is extremely arrogant of us to think we deserve God s blessing despite ignoring what He wants accomplished on planet earth. God has an agenda for you personally to fulfill that helps accomplish what He wants done in this life. He s looking for these people! God wants to reveal Himself to a world through people Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere (NLT) Notice what the blessing of power is for? Telling people about the reality of Jesus. In the OT God s agenda was to use the nation of Israel as a testimony to the world so people would find Him. In the NT God uses the church as His testimony to the world. God has an agenda and He uses us! God could have given this responsibility to angels but He didn t. He entrusted it to us. His blessing and power is reserved for this purpose. **God is not going to bless and empower us so we can elevate ourselves and give witness to how great we are. This is why this project has to be done in the right manner. It cannot ever be about us or a building. It must be a witness about God. God wants to destroy the works of Satan through people Rom. 16:20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet (NLT) Do you see how Satan is crushed? God crushes Satan under the feet of His people. He uses our feet! God s looking for people to do some stomping. He s looking for people who understand the spiritual significance of what is really taking place. He looks for those who don t just see the physical but can engage the spiritual. The conflict that rages is not physical; it s not flesh and blood; it s not between people. The conflict is cosmic; spiritual; between angels and demons, between Page 2

3 Satan and the Almighty God. He s looking for people who understand this! The transformation of this building is destroying the works of Satan. Satan doesn t want to see Molalla be an example of God s transformation. He doesn t want this project to give anyone hope. If we do not realize the Lord is looking for those to bless in Molalla and the reasons why, He will find someone else. May we become people that causes His gaze to be fixed on us! 2. Accept God s Standard For Blessing those whose hearts are fully committed to him What does it look like to be fully committed? Fully committed to what? It s kind of like jumping in a pool or wading in the shallow end. The person who jumps in and gets fully immersed, is fully committed. (Difference between how my wife and I get in a pool explain) So what does fully committed look like in my relationship with God? Fully committed to obedience I John 2:4 If someone claims, I know God, but doesn t obey God s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. (NLT) James 1:25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. (NLT) Are we fully committed to obedience? We live in a culture that is constantly trying to redefine what right and wrong is. In fact, you are criticized and ostracized if you say certain things are sinful or wrong. How can we be fully committed to God if we are not fully committed to what He says? How can we expect blessing from God when blessing is connected to obedience? Please understand that being fully committed to obedience doesn t mean we are perfect in obedience. We all struggle with obedience and will continue until we see Jesus. BUT, have you made a commitment to submit your life to obedience and your lifestyle backs this up? Fully committed to relationships Mark 12:29-31 Jesus replied, The most important commandment is this: Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. The second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. No other commandment is greater than these. (NLT) Since Jesus defined these as the two most important things we can do, it would make sense then that blessing would be attached to these priorities. How can we expect to be blessed by God if we do not love Him or others? Page 3

4 Am I pursuing and growing in my relationship with God and my relationships with others? Am I becoming a more loving person? (Vertically and Horizontally) Fully committed to His Kingdom Matt. 6:33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. (NLT) Notice that it says to seek the Kingdom of God above all else. What are you willing to sacrifice in order to seek the Kingdom of God? What are you willing to sacrifice in order to be a Kingdom of God pursuer? When we embrace the values of His Kingdom; live the actions of His Kingdom; share the message and truth of His Kingdom; and enjoy the relationships in the Kingdom; we are seeking the Kingdom of God. To seek something above all else means you must sacrifice other pursuits. Often we want to fit God s Kingdom into our already over-packed lives. God s Kingdom is not an obsession, it s more of an abbreviation. The purchase and transformation of this property is about the Kingdom of God. I guarantee you that it will require great sacrifice from all of us for it to be a reality. We make sacrifices for an education / buy a house / vacation / for our retirement / to purchase a vehicle. Now, can we value the Kingdom of God so much that we will make great sacrifices for it to become a reality in Molalla? God wants to bless Foothills beyond what we can even imagine. Therefore, He is calling us all to grow in being fully committed to Him. How is He calling you to grow? How can this next year be the year where your commitment to follow Jesus made great progress? We have a baptism Sunday January 19 th. For many, this would be your next step. 3. Choose A Miraculous Life How can we choose a miraculous life? The same way people did in the Bible. Summarize Joshua 3 story Israel getting ready to cross the Jordan and begin possessing the Promise Land. Josh. 3:5 Then Joshua told the people, Purify yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do great wonders among you. (NLT) In other words, get yourselves ready because God is ready to move! I believe God is telling us the same thing! Foothills, I am ready to do great things in your midst. Now, get yourselves ready! How? Embrace a sense of destiny The nation of Israel certainly embraced a sense of destiny. They knew they were on Mission. They were living God s plan for their lives. They believed the Promise Land was already theirs. They knew they were not there by accident, fate or chance. They were on mission. What do we believe about our destiny? Page 4

5 God called Foothills into existence over 15 years ago. It is not luck, fate or chance that we are here. It s because we follow. 80% of all church plants die within the first 2 years. The average size of churches in America is 80 people. Only 3% of churches in America are over 1000 people. We are a miracle! Foothills is more than a church. We are a move of God. When God wants to do something, He looks for and chooses people. It is essential that we collectively embrace this truth. WHY? You don t sacrifice for luck or chance. But we do sacrifice for a God ordained destiny. (Just like Israel did) Set yourselves apart for God This is literally what Joshua was telling the people. Some translations use the phrase; sanctify yourselves. Set yourselves apart for God to use. Set yourself apart from the world, it s values; it s distractions; it s influence; and give God priority. If I were a coach I would say; Get your head in the game! Get your head in the spiritual game. See what is going on. Engage in this! Stop thinking just about your own life. Something bigger is going on here than just you! Set yourself apart for this. Let s not miss the significance of this moment. Move towards the impossible Even though the Promised Land was promised to them, they still had to take it. There were many battles that lay ahead. Even with a promise comes responsibility. They had to move towards the impossible in order to see God s power and claim the promise. They had to move towards a river at flood stage / they had to move towards a walled city / they had to move towards battles where they were outnumbered and outgunned / they had to move towards giants. Do you see a pattern? God has given us promises as well. As we prayed seeking God about the direction of our space issues and future growth, He took us right back here. He made it clear to us this is where He wanted us. The purchase and remodel of this site will require millions of dollars. It is a large complex project that is bigger than anything we have ever attempted before. So what do we do? Move towards it. When God s people move towards the impossible, it unleashes the supernatural power of God. It is only in the impossible where God gets all the glory and credit. This is what we and the people of Molalla need to see. Not us / not a beautiful building / but the reality of God in Molalla. Page 5

6 God is calling us to choose the miraculous life. Let s follow Him. Let s continue to be that church that makes people scratch their heads wondering how they do that? There s only one answer God is in our midst! Let s become a bless-able people. Let s become even more a group of people that causes God to fix His gaze right here right now. Realize the Lord is looking for people to bless Accept God s standard for blessing Choose a miraculous life Page 6

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