Today we're finishing up our series, Miracles Then and Now. And I want to begin with something that you might be familiar with. Perhaps you're familiar with this phrase, the Goldilocks zone? No. Okay. The habitable zone. I've been practicing. Staying habitable all week is not an easy word to say. The Goldilocks zone of a habitable zone.
This is this this. This is the distance from a star. The distance from a star that we're, I where conditions are ideal for liquid water to exist on a planet's surface. Okay. You may or may not remember this. And liquid water is important because liquid water is what enables a planet to sustain life. Because if it's too hot, the water boils away.
If the water is too cold, it ice freezes. It freezes right. So the good news for you and for me is planet Earth. Planet Earth? It's not too hot. It's not too cold. It's just. Right. Okay. Some of you got that right. Because you may not remember science class, but you remember Goldilocks and three bears. Okay.
So anyway, so that's where this comes from. The Goldilocks zone is the we we're in that orbit where it's the perfect distance. And so consequently our planet sustains life. So with that in mind today I want to talk about a different zone that actually sets things up to happen that don't normally happen as well. And we're going to call it I just made this up.
We're going to call it the Miracle Zone. More on that in just a moment today. If you haven't been with us or if you haven't been with us in a long time, we are wrapping up this series miracles then and now. And if you're not a particularly religious person, and as soon as you see the word miracles, you're like, oh, great, I came at the wrong time, or I'm watching at the wrong time because you're skeptical as a skeptic, you're skeptical as it relates.
I got it habitable. Correct. Anyway, you're skeptical as it relates to miracles. And if you're skeptical about miracles, you should be. And the reason that you should be is because a miracle isn't just a miracle isn't just something that's unusual. Like your boss remembers your name. You know, you might have felt like that was a miracle. You know, he or she finally got it right.
But that's not really a miracle. It's just something unusual, right? So miracles aren't just things that are unusual. And the reason you should be skeptical as it relates to miracles.
Miracles aren't unusual. Miracles are actually impossible because a miracle is a temporary suspension or reversal of the laws of nature. Yet in spite of this, from the very beginning, Christians have believed that miracles are not only possible, but we are. That they're not only possible, but we. Excuse me. We believe miracles are possible, and we believe they're actually an essential part of being a Christian.
And the reason we believe that, of course, and even if you're not a Christian, even if you're a theist, you believe in some other God or some other version of God. At the Christian God, you get this we believe in a God who created and created the universe and created the universe, created the laws of nature. So since God created the laws of nature, we believe.
Maybe you believe as well. Probably that God is not bound by the laws of nature that God created and that when God chooses, God can reverse or suspend temporarily the very laws that he put in to motion. So the possibility and reality of miracles is actually fundamental to Christianity, which means and don't leave early. If this is kind of like, you know, maybe somebody finally talked you into watching or brought you to church for the first time.
Which means in order to be a Christian, you have to believe in miracles. But, as we talked about in part one, you really only have to believe in two miracles to be a Christian. And one of the miracles is something that you already believe in. So we're not going to go back and review all of that.
But that's part one of the series. So we're moving on. But if we're when it comes to miracles, if we're super honest, whether you're a religious person or not, and this includes all of us, me certainly includes me. What we really want to know when it comes to the topic of miracles is this how do I get me one?
How do I get one? Or how do I get one for somebody I love and somebody I care about? Right. For somebody that's close to me, which is totally legitimate. In fact, we talked about in week two that we are invited, we are invited to come to our Heavenly Father with all of our requests, regardless of how unreasonable they may seem.
So this isn't a disc for those of us, you know, people who are praying for miracles. But as we talked about as well in part two, there is no formula. There's no formula. And anybody tries to sell you a book with the formula.
Just save your money. There's no formula because and this should be comforting. Not not discouraging because miracles are at God's discretion to further God's purposes in the world. That miracles are at God's discretion is to further God's purposes in the world.
So the good news is, you can't control your heavenly Father because he is large and in charge. And we are we are invited to accept that. So here's the thing. While both the Old and New Testament underscore the fact that miracles are for God at God's discretion, for God's purposes, the Old and New Testament also underscore something else as it relates to miracles that while there is no formula, there is, and this is what we're going to talk about, there is a posture.
There is a posture that puts you and puts me in what we're calling the miracle zone. And the posture that puts us in the miracle zone is the posture of submission and obedience to our Heavenly Father. Or we may say it's a submission to an obedience to our King, who is Jesus, who came to establish his kingdom in the hearts and lives of people, and to establish his kingdom on planet Earth.
It's the posture of we talk about it all the time. It's the posture of thy will, not my will. Thy will be done when it makes sense and when it doesn't. And the reason that that posture puts us in the miracle zone is exactly what I've stated twice already, that miracles, miracles are at God's discretion to further God's purposes.
So when you are surrendered to and when I am surrendered to my father in heaven, we are living our lives in sync with his purposes on earth, which means you are in line for God to do the unusual all through you if it furthers his purposes on earth. Now, there are so many examples of this and the old and the New Testament, and I thought it would be fun to go back into the old Testament Jesus story, that you may be somewhat familiar with.
If you didn't grow up in church, you may have never heard this story before. It doesn't get a lot of airplay, but it's a very significant story. And it illustrates, from the Old Testament, this very, this very principle. Now, I'm going to tell you the story before I read you the story, and then I'll tell you why I told you the story before I read you the story.
But the main character in this story is a military leader, who was asked to do something way below his status, way below his dignity. In fact, it was what he was asked to do was really insulting. It made absolutely no sense. And so naturally, he resisted. It's like, yeah, there's no way I'm going to do that. And then at the last minute, some wise people came around him and they said, hey, at least, hey, maybe you should try this.
And so he changes his mind and he does the thing he's been asked to do. And as a result of that, he experienced a miracle that he would have missed otherwise. And my point? Spoiling the story before I tell you the story goes back to something I've told you so many times and I've, I've, you know, I'm going to come back to this over and over and over.
I guess this kind of a life message or life theme for me that I've experienced and many of you have experienced as well, and that's this. You have no idea. You have you have no idea what hangs in the balance of your decision to submit to and to follow Jesus. You have no idea what's on the other side of your decision to submit to and to follow Jesus.
We think we do because when we're faced with decisions in this life, there's no way I would do that. Nobody does it that way. That never works out. I know where that's going to go. We all think we're fortune tellers, that we can predict our own futures. But the reality and if you've been a Christian for a long time, you get this.
You have stories. You really don't. I really don't know what's on the other side of a decision to follow Jesus, or to say yes to our Heavenly Father when he asks us or requires us to do something unusual out of the ordinary, maybe something nobody else is doing, or to step into something we don't feel we're prepared for.
So saying yes positions you for the unexpected, perhaps the unexplainable, perhaps a miracle. So if you're wrestling with a really difficult decision, a decision that may have a bit of an ethical or a moral edge to it.
As you think about your dilemma, you think about it in terms of two options, but you aren't. You aren't just choosing between two options. You are choosing a posture. And this is what we miss. And this is why this story is so important. And this is why we're closing the series with this topic. We think in terms of options, I can do a I can be do B, I can do this, I can do that.
But in reality, if there's a moral or ethical component to the decision you're wrestling with, you are actually choosing a posture. You're choosing a posture of surrender to your heavenly father, or you're choosing a posture of independence is my life. I do whatever I want. That's is you're choosing a posture between thy will be done or my will be done.
And one of those postures, the posture of surrender, is an invitation for your heavenly father to intervene in your life, because you don't know what's on the other side of your surrender to you, to your heavenly father, to your Savior.
And I'm pleading with you today, regardless of your religious background, regardless where you are on the, you know, whole faith spectrum, you're new. You've been a Christian for a long time to adopt the posture of surrender to your heavenly father and to your King, because it positions you for the unusual, and you don't know what hangs in the balance of your decision to follow Jesus.
So all that to say this, this is not simply a story for us. This is a story about us. And I think that will become clear as I tell you the whole story. So from the Old Testament book of Second Kings, this is chapter five. This takes place in the ninth century BC, so way before Jesus and long after the Kingdom of Israel has been established.
And here's how this story opens. And this is the name you may be somewhat familiar with if, like me, you grew up in church, here's how it goes. The text says this now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. Aram was a country, kind of a country way north of Israel in modern day Syria.
So Naaman was the commander of the army of the king of Aram, and he was a great man. That means everybody in his nation knew him, and everybody south of him knew him. As we were going to discover, he was a great man in the side of his master, who was the king and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram.
So Aram is kind of the military big dog. And on the map in this region of the world. The text goes on to say that Naaman was a valiant soldier, but he had a problem. He had leprosy. And in ancient times this was considered contagious. In ancient times this was considered a long death sentence. Unsightly sores. Many people with leprosy eventually lost their eyesight.
They lost a feeling and their fingers and toes and extremities, and consequently they lost their extremities. Oftentimes, again, a slow death sentence. But what made it even worse? To some extent, if it could be worse, is it included alienation from society and from your family because everyone was afraid of you, you became sort of a monster, an outcast, which it made things even worse.
Well, fortunately, Naaman's wife, after he got this diagnosis name, his wife had a slave girl that had been captured in one of the border skirmishes between Israel to the south and Aram to the north.
And she finds out with the family that Naaman has leprosy. And she goes to her mistress. Her her. The lady who controlled her basically owned her. And she said to Naaman his wife. She said, if only my master Naaman would see the prophet who is in Samaria, south in Israel. He the prophet would cure Naaman of his leprosy.
So Naaman's wife says, hey, this is a long shot. But, you know, so-and-so here says there's a there's a miracle worker. There's somebody that can do magic in Israel. You know, it's worth a shot. So Naaman goes to his boss, King bin Adad, who's the king of Aram, and says, hey, it's worth a shot. So King adds, like, absolutely, you're a national treasure.
You're so valuable to us. So King Bin Adad writes a a letter to the king. King Joram of Israel, to take the in with Naaman, to go down there and ask to be healed, to ask for a miracle. And we actually have a copy of the letter. Here's what the letter said. It said with this letter this is from the king of Aram.
For this letter, I'm sending my servant Naaman to you, that you, the king, may cure him of his leprosy. So we got a little bit confused. Something got confused in translation. So then the king gives name and some gold and some silver and some changes of clothes. So this is basically, hey, if you cure Naaman, here's a reward for, you know, helping us out.
So Naaman loads up the gold and the silver and the changes of clothes on several wagons. He's got soldiers with him. It's like an entourage. And he heads south to see the king. So he has an audience with the King of Israel. The King of Israel reads the letter from the king of Aram, and the text says that when he read the letter, he tore his robe.
This is a sign of anguish and mourning. And he's like, oh no, wait, this king I think that I'm God. This king bit it. I think that I'm a God, that I can actually cure somebody of leprosy. And he's so distraught. Then he's like, I know what's going on here. He knows I can't cure anybody of leprosy.
He knows that I'm going to say, I can't do it. And then Naaman is going to return north, and then King is going to use this as an excuse to come over our borders and break our treaty. Now I know what's up. So he is just distraught and stalls and he's trying to figure out what should I do with this situation.
Meanwhile, somebody slips out the back and goes down to this little village outside of where they were and finds Elijah and tells Elijah what's going on. Elijah sends the messenger back and tells the king, send this man to me. So the King of Israel says, you got the wrong guy. I know the right guy. And he sends Naaman to see Elijah the prophet.
So when Naaman shows up in this little village, there's probably nobody on the street. Everybody is, you know, they're hiding now, and they've taken the women, the children, the silver, and you know, everybody's gone. So he he pulls up and the text says, so Naaman went with his horses and chariots. It's a big ordeal. And stopped at the door of Elijah's house.
And the streets are empty and of course, Naaman expects Elijah to come out and, you know, bow and scrape and show all respect. His name is a big name, and he's a big guy. And, you know, he's an important person and he's used to people, you know, just kind of sucking up a little bit. I mean, this he's like the second most important person in his his whole country.
And what happens next is amazing. Elijah sent a messenger. He didn't even come out of his house. I mean, there's all this racket. It's not like, didn't know we were here. Elijah sent a messenger to say to him, to Naaman, go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.
And then this messenger ducks back inside Elijah's house, and Naaman is furious. Nobody talks to him this way. Nobody treats him. This way. This is such an insult. And now he starts ranting and raving. I thought I thought he would surely talking about Elijah. I thought he would surely come out here and stand in front of me, call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hands over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.
He was expecting some kind of elaborate ceremony. We're going to slaughter a thousand sheep and an oxen, and there's going to be singers. And you know, there's this is going to be like a thing. And at the end of the thing, whatever, it looks like, I'm going to be cured. This prophet didn't even have the decency to greet me.
And then he keeps ranting. He says, besides that, the rivers in our country are way cleaner than the rivers of this filthy country. I mean, seriously, if I if I needed a bath, I mean, you're telling me to go wash myself. If I needed a bath, I could take a bath in my own country. They are mocking us.
And he turns around, gets on his chariot and he's about to leave because this doesn't make any sense. And he he was not about to make a spectacle of himself publicly.
And there you are. And there I have been. And there I will be again. Wait! God! Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Do you want me to do what? But you want me to break up? Do you know how long you want me to reconcile with her? With it? You want me to like you want me to be? You want me to apologize?
You want me to consider going back and wait? You want me to walk away from all that? Are you seriously, these opportunities come once in a lifetime, and I'm sure there's a walk away. If you want me to give up a week of my vacation and go where and do what? There's that tension. And somebody today watching or in the room here, if you're wrestling, you got a decision to make.
And there's an ethical, moral, maybe kind of a religious edge to this. And it it's too much. It's just over the top and you're struggling and it doesn't make any sense. And people will not understand. And it will cost you and there's no guarantee. You're absolutely right.
What are you wrestling with? would you like to experience God on the other side? Do you want to position yourself for the unusual? Maybe the supernatural? Then you choose the posture of surrender, not my will. Even though my will makes a whole lot more sense than your will, not my will, your will be done, and not as a means to an end other than I'm surrendered to my king.
This isn't a formula. This isn't a ploy. This is simply I'm going to live in the posture of surrender. And if you choose me to further your purposes through my surrender, have at it. And however you choose to do, it's fine. If it's suffering, if it's a miracle, if it's something unusual, I'm yours. That's what it looks like every single day to follow Jesus back to the story.
So Naaman servents. So he's a he's a I mean, he is mad. He is insulted. If there had been a treaty, he may have raised the whole village. We don't know. Naaman's servents went to him and said, my father, he's you, because he's about to leave. If the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it?
In other words, if the prophet had come out and waved his hands and said, in order to be healed of your leprosy, you must go into the hills, and you must slay the twin mountain lions who steal our sheep and attack our farmers. When you've done that, he'd be like, absolutely. I would grab my javelins. I would have been, you know, I would charge the hill and they're like, okay, well, if you would have done some great thing, why not do this?
I mean, we're here. Yes. It's beneath you. Yes. It's humiliating, but why not him? He does he listen to this wise counsel. So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan River seven times, just as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored, and he became clean like that of a young boy. And then Naaman and all the entourage goes back to the village.
And this time Elijah is standing outside waiting then Naaman And all his attendants went back to the man of God. And he stood before them and Naaman said to Elijah, that was quite a trick. How did you do that? No, it's not what he said. You take that.
This is the point of the story. This is the point of your story. Of my story, your story. This is the point of obedience. That the point of the miracle turned out to the point of the miracle. The point of the whole narrative has nothing to do with leprosy or even healing. And it had everything to do with eye opening, perspective changing, faith building, revelation.
And as a pastor, this is the experience I want for every single one of you and every single one of your kids, and every single one of your teenagers and every single Christian everywhere. For all of us to experience obedience intersecting with God's faithfulness. Because you don't know what's on the other side. And at the end of the day, you don't want to miss it.
And when you miss it, you don't even know what you've missed. And as you see in the story, Naaman isn't just healed, which, because that's not even the point . Naaman is changed.
A listen to how the story winds down. Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God, and he stood before him and said, now I know there is no God in all the world, which was a big statement, because he had been worshiping other gods, and all the gods were, you know, associated with certain territories we're going to see.
And now he's like, oh my goodness. Whoa, whoa, what just happened to me? Oh my goodness. I'm convinced there is no other God in the whole world except in Israel. And then he offers Elijah a gift. He's like, bring the gold in the silver and give him all ten changes of clothes. And Elijah is like, no, he refuses it.
This is why Elijah didn't go out to greet him in the first place. He didn't want Naaman and to think it's magic. He didn't want Naaman to think he's anything special about Elijah. He didn't want Naaman to think there's some kind of formula. Elijah stays in the house so that when this story plays out, Naaman knows who's behind it.
Because God accomplished through this miracle his purposes in the world and his purposes in his nation at the time, for his people. Naaman insists, no, no, no, you've got to take something and is like, I'm not taking anything. And then Naaman ask Elijah for something dirt. This is so fascinating, if you will not, he says, if you will not take a gift from me, said Naaman, please let me, your servant, be given as much earth or dirt as a pair of mules can carry, which is a good bit of dirt wise as well, because your servant this is amazing, will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other God but your God, the
Lord. No talk of leprosy, no talk of healing. He's had an encounter with the living God, and the reason he wanted the dirt was because back then, in ancient times, it was believed that a deity could be worshiped only on the soil of the territory over which the deity ruled. So his thinking is this my gods reign over my dirt, your gods reign over this dirt, this better dirt, because you got a better God.
So from now on, I got to worship this God over my dirt. But I need some of this dirt, right? Because I'm worth. Either way. I've met the God of all the world. Who's the greatest God in all the world. And I want some of this. Your God dirt so I can worship your God for the rest of my life.
He wanted to take Israel dirt to Damascus to worship Israel's God. Obedience. Surrender. Submission. This is the posture that sets you up for an encounter with God. And it may be unusual, it may be miraculous, but it will do something inside of you that overwhelms whatever the details are associated with, whatever it is you're wrestling with. And this isn't a bribe, it's a posture.
Again, it's the posture that positions you to further God's purposes in the world, which may entail a miracle but always entails God's faithfulness. It's why, and I know we talk about it all the time, but it's why Jesus instructed us to pray the way he instructed us to pray. You remember, he says, when you pray, he you pray, thy will be done.
Not my will be done. Thy will be done, not my will be done. And think of the language now as we think about this story, he says, thy will be done on earth. On the dirt I walk. On the pavement I walk on wherever I go. I want your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, just as you reign in heaven.
I want you to reign over my life on planet Earth. So what do you wrestle with? What's going on inside your heart? What are you debating? You kind of know, but you don't really know where that's going to lead. And it kind of scares you. So you kind of listen to the people that are confirming your biases, you know?
What are you wrestling with? And I know it's a silly question to ask, but are you sure? Would you like to experience God? You want to position yourself for the unusual, maybe the supernatural, or what will feel like a miraculous supernatural event for you? It's the posture. It's the miracle zone. It's the posture of surrender, not my will, your will to be a means toan end that is not you.
To be a means to glory. That's not your glory. To be a means to an end that ultimately brings glory to God. Because miracles, the supernatural, the unusual. They are God's plan are. They are God's way of manifesting his presence and his activity in the world to accomplish his purpose in the world. So last time, what are you wrestling with?
What's going on? Let me ask you a different way. Real quick. When this is over with, whatever you're wrestling with right now, when it's in the past? What story do you want to tell when this is just a story you tell him one day?
I know it's huge. It's your marriage. It's your kids. It's work. It's money. Is it? But one day, this is just a story you tell. And what story do you want to tell? The story of God's faithfulness or story of? I got this resistance and maybe regret, but for sure, never knowing what God might have done through you and you if you would just embrace the posture of surrender.
The posture surrender is the posture of the Jesus follower. It's the posture that positions you for the unexpected and maybe a miracle. What are you wrestling with? Why not just say yes to your father in heaven?
.png?width=176&height=73&name=YMwAS_Vertical_WhiteBlue%20(1).png)
.png?width=118&height=49&name=YMwAS_Vertical_WhiteBlue%20(1).png){kind=small}
