The Good Work: Free Will Giving

We often look down on the little, insignificant things of life. Often times, God will use the little things to do His greatest work. As Elijah responds to God's voice, he is led to a widow woman at the point of desperation. Where she saw a limitation and defeat, God saw an opportunity. It is this point of limitation and when she realized she had nothing left that God multiplied what she didn't have. The greatness of a miracle is not found in the size of the need, but by the greatness of God who provides. 

Elijah called to be God's voice on the earth speaks his first prophecy and goes into isolation immediately afterwards. Many people would question this move as punishment or that Elijah missed his calling, but often times God calls us into the quiet places to prepare us for future assignments. It is the secret place that God forms men and women for service. While God provided for Elijah in a unique way, his source dried up and he was forced to move. God often times tests our dependence by changing the brooks in our lives to lead us to the next opportunity.

Often times temporary disappointments can become permanent realities. A man with paralysis laid for 38 years hoping for his miracle. He had the will but lacked the ability to make his healing happen until Jesus showed up in his life. What we see is that when Jesus speaks he gives us the power to carry what has been carrying us.

Ministry is messy and when the church does its job it will encounter messed up people in messed up situations.  Jesus encountered a messy man with a messy story in a messy place- we call him the demoniac. He lived among the dead and the tombs. Jesus stepped into his world and called him from a life of misery and death and gave him a right mind. We are called into the messy, scandalous, painful, and broken situations to a people longing to be set free by the power of Christ.

Oftentimes we wait for the Lord to do things that he has already said that we could do or already have the authority to do. We never receive because it wasn't "God's will" while the situation required action. Today we study a woman who didn't wait passively in hope, but actively used her faith to initiate the miracle in her life. The reality is that we can believe in God and never actually touch Him. Today, let's activate our faith and press in to his power.

This message "Loved Beyond Measure" centers on the depth, reach, and personal nature of God's love as revealed through Jesus Christ. Drawing from multiple passages in the Bible - particularly the Gospel of John - this presentation highlighted how Jesus consistently demonstrated love toward individuals from all walks of life, including the broken, rejected, and overlooked.