Receiving Your Miracle

and wave your bibles around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

And let's all say this together, even though we're online.

Maybe nobody's there to hear you say it, but you're hearing you say it, the devil hears you say it, god hears you say it.

Say, oh God.

I've tuned in to live stream tonight because I'm hungry for the Word of God.

I'm listening tonight with an open heart.

I am teachable.

I don't know everything, and I need to hear this message about receiving my miracle because I'm believing that 2020 is my greatest year yet, and so I'm determined to receive my miracle in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Matthew, chapter eight, if you would and this is one of the powerful chapters in the Bible, verse one when he, jesus, was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him and behold, there came a leper and worshiped him, saying Lord, if thou wilt, thou can make me clean.

And Jesus put forth his hand.

Notice how, what he did.

Jesus put forth his hand and said and touched him.

He put forth his hand and touched him and saying I will be thou clean.

And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

And Jesus said unto him see, thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.

So receiving your miracle.

A number of years ago, god admonished me and he said teach what you take for granted.

And I kinda looked at some of my messages that I was teaching at the time and they were good messages and so forth, but I can't say that they were that easy to understand.

I mean, I gotten into some kinda detail, teaching about different subjects, and so I just I changed, I just made an adjustment, I started teaching what I take for granted and I found out lots of people need these basic truths, and so these truths are maybe not something new that you haven't heard before, but if they aren't new, then the truth will water what you already have and make it more effective.

And also you might be missing something in the things that I'm gonna share with you about how to receive your miracle.

So let's talk about the setting tonight.

The setting is that multitudes followed Jesus after he came down from the mountain, and so what was that mountain?

Well, that's where he made the sermon on the mount, matthew, chapter five, six and seven, three chapters there that they spent almost all in red, where Jesus preached to the multitudes and he shared with them truth about God that they were astounded.

In chapter seven, verse 28,.

People were astonished at his teaching.

They, because you teach us as one that has authority and not as a professor, and I think that maybe that I had lapsed into maybe teaching like a professor.

Well, you know, we need good, practical Bible teaching that we can all process and put to work.

And so Jesus was teaching them about their heavenly father, about the father God.

You know, jesus said I only say the things I hear my father say.

I do the things that I see my father do.

If you've seen me, you've seen the father.

And so for 400 years Israel had no profit, after Malachi, until John the Baptist.

So this generation were ignorant about God, they were ignorant about their promises, they were ignorant about their covenant, and Jesus was showing them things that they had never heard.

And yet there's no record of any one of that multitude receiving a miracle.

You know, out of a multitude, many had to have needed a miracle, Many had to have needed a intervention by God, and there's no record of any of them having any help.

But then it comes into this that we read tonight One particular person came to him after he got down the mountain and one particular person who had leprosy, and how was it that he received his miracle when a multitude didn't receive theirs?

See, that's the thing I mean.

You know, we can come to church, we can listen and all of that, and we can still be without our miracles.

So that's the point of teaching this tonight.

Perhaps there'd be one of my five.

We've got one, two, three, four, five things to cover with you.

One of these five is missing.

Perhaps you're not gonna get the miracle that you really need.

So one out of a multitude.

And so everyone was astonished, but no one received their miracle.

So what I see in this account, it's just four verses.

It's amazing, but I see a Bible pattern that we can follow, and if we'll do what people did in the Bible to receive their miracle, I believe we can receive ours.

And so five principles to receive your miracle.

So let's talk about the leper.

What did he do first?

Well, the leper.

First of all, number one he positioned himself close to Jesus.

The Bible says that he came through the multitude and, plus, he's a leper.

So according to the Jewish law, he's supposed to say unclean, unclean.

He didn't do that.

I mean, he came in violation of the law, and he drew near to Jesus and he overcame his fear of stoning and you know.

And he drew near to Jesus.

And some people are never received their miracle why?

Well, because they're in the wrong position.

They're in the wrong church.

They're in a church that's dead, that doesn't preach healing, as for today, or they preach that miracles passed away.

There's still a lot of churches like that.

Or perhaps they have a wrong walk.

They're not walking close to Jesus.

They're not.

They have wrong thinking.

You know, your thinking can sometimes hinder you from receiving like you should.

You have to position yourself close to the Word and the Spirit.

Jesus is the Word, and so you have to position yourself close to the Word and the Spirit.

Yes, I know, if you're saved, the Spirit lives inside of you.

But do you live near to Him?

See, it's two different things.

I mean, he can live in you, but you're not really living close to Him.

You're not walking close to Him.

You know the old Him, just a closer walk with thee.

You know well, we do need to get closer to Jesus.

We need a miracle.

He's the miracle worker.

Let's get close to it.

Draw near to Him and he will draw near to you, so position yourself close to Jesus.

That's what the Leopard did, all right.

So the principle number one.

Principle number two what did he do when he got near to Jesus?

He worshiped Him.

He fell down and worshiped Him.

See, worship, well, it doesn't say he fell down.

Well, the word worship means to prostrate oneself.

So he did.

He got on the ground.

Now, what anybody else on the ground?

He got on the ground and he worshiped Jesus.

He said Lord, see, so he recognized he was the Messiah.

The word worship there in the Greek, means to prostrate oneself.

It means to kiss or to like a dog licking the master's hand.

If you ever had your dog come up to you and you're not paying much attention, you know, and your hand's over here, and all of a sudden you've got that warm tongue on your top of your hand and you know what do you do?

Well, you grab the dog and hug Him and you respond.

There's just something about that dog licking on you that makes you respond.

And really, god is the same way.

When we worship Him, when we magnify Him, he draws near to us, he responds to us.

Jesus responded to this man, to this leper, and so, as he worshiped Him.

See, see, submit to His person and to His will.

Put Jesus in charge of how.

Quit telling God how to fix your problem.

You don't know how to fix it and so quit, quit, you know.

Put Him in charge of how.

Just trust Him, don't tell Him how to do it, just all this questioning and reasoning.

Sometimes, when we're in trouble, we just question and we reason and we sometimes even blame God.

And sometimes I mean I've talked with people over the years that were in a lot of trouble and a lot of times when I started asking questions I found out they were blaming God.

I said, well, how in the world are you gonna get God to move?

For if you blame Him for your trouble?

You know you have to determine one thing and one thing right now God is not the source of the trouble, he's not the troublemaker.

The troublemaker's name is the devil, and sometimes the troublemaker is us.

We can't even really blame the devil sometimes.

Sometimes it's us.

And you know, like the old World War II, there was some graffiti.

Somebody you know wrote on the side of a tag.

It says I have seen the enemy and he is me.

You know, sometimes we are our own worst enemy.

So questioning reasoning, blaming, pouting, being frustrated, amen, just worship Him and put Him in charge of how you're gonna get out of what it is.

You need help in Worship Him, all right.

And then the third thing I noticed the leper did is in verse two he spoke his faith.

Now, there's nowhere in this account that mentions faith, but faith is demonstrated here because the leper spoke his faith.

The leper said to Jesus you can make me whole.

You shouldn't say whole, you can make me clean.

He didn't say whole, you can make me clean.

So he had faith in Jesus' ability.

Yeah, but, pastor, he said if you will, if you will, well, that's right.

He did not have total faith in Jesus' willingness.

That's ignorance of the covenant.

And who's that on?

That's on the rabbis, the Jewish rabbis that he sat under.

I mean, the Jewish rabbis let him have a leprosy.

They never told him that leprosy was covered under the covenant, that they even have a whole thing where leprosy is healed and that he could be healed.

I mean, leprosy is just another sickness.

It is a terrible sickness, it's a terminal sickness, but at the same time they were not the answer.

They had no answer for him and basically he's on his own.

He's unclean.

You've got to separate yourself.

Go, look for a leper colony and just be separate from us.

Don't touch us, don't bother us.

Hey, you're unclean, hands off, and so we're closed.

We're afraid of COVID.

Put your mask on, stay at home, be safe, socially distant, wash your hands 150 times a day, come on church.

Let's get real.

I mean, we're responsible for our members' health and we ought to be preaching the Word to them.

If they make the choice not to come to church, it ought to not be because the pastor said don't come.

The pastor ought to have the doors open.

Come on pastors, open your church.

And so anyway, the Bible is progressive revelation.

So in Bible days they didn't have a lot of understanding about the devil's role in sickness and disease, and so they didn't know.

The leper wasn't sure about the willingness of Jesus to do it, but he didn't doubt Jesus' ability to cure a terminal disease.

That's some faith.

He spoke his faith out, and in Romans 10, 17,.

Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.

So if he's not taught about the willingness of God, then he can't have any faith about God's willingness.

That would have been presumptuous on his part.

He was being humble and so.

But we know better than that, because we know that God's Word is his will, and we see that Jesus said I will.

He reached out and touched someone with a communicable disease.

He violated the law himself.

I tell you, people are more important than rules, especially religious rules.

I tell you, people are more important than you know the county judges, rules and the different rules of the mayor of Houston.

They're non-essential as far as I'm concerned.

And so faith cometh by hearing and hearing.

That's the reason I'm preaching this tonight.

I want to build your faith, I want to renew your faith.

All that we need has been paid for at the cross.

So his willingness has already settled.

I mean, how much more willing do you get than you send your only begotten son to die on the cross and, at the same time, to die for our sins?

He takes our sicknesses and our diseases.

In fact, later on, in this same chapter Matthew, chapter eight, verse 17, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah, the prophet saying himself took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses.

And so what a powerful chapter this is.

They didn't know all of that back there, they didn't know the willingness, they weren't.

It wasn't preached to them.

So, just on the basis of him knowing about Jesus' ability, jesus reached out and says I will.

He settled it just like that.

I will, didn't spend a long time, just said I will, touched him and cleansed him of leprosy.

Praise God, so appropriate your miracle with faithful words.

Let's start claiming our healing.

Let's start claiming our finances or in order.

Let's start claiming that our needs are met.

Let's start speaking in line with the word.

All right.

So we've covered three of these principles.

First of all, the position yourself close to Jesus.

Don't just realize he's living inside of you, but live close to him.

Number two worship him, put him in charge of the house.

Number three speak your faith.

Number four we'll get to this one.

What I noticed about this leper is that he asked for the impossible.

He said, lord, you can make me clean.

And notice.

He didn't say leprosy, as I said, it's incurable, there is no known cure.

And he didn't say Lord, you can give me the strength to cope, you can give me coping skills.

Lord, I've been praying the serenity prayer.

Do you have the serenity prayer?

Why don't you tear that thing down, throw it in the fireplace?

I mean, that's not a Bible prayer, that's a goofball unbelief prayer that's not based on anything but theories.

I mean the serenity.

Are you kidding me?

If he'd have prayed the serenity prayer, that's probably what he would have got.

Yeah, okay, I'll give you strength to die.

With leprosy.

You'll, you know, just die.

You'll live a long life, but you'll be miserable.

No, he didn't ask for that.

He asked to be clean, and I'm convinced if he could have had enough faith to be made whole, jesus would have made him whole.

You know cause?

Leprosy had already eaten on this man and leprosy is a destruction of your flesh and many of these folks, you know, they lose fingers, they lose toes, they lose parts of their face, lips, nose, soft tissue.

No doubt he had a destruction.

He could have been made whole, but he didn't know to ask for that.

So he asked to be made clean and Jesus cleansed him, and so he didn't ask for a leprosy support group.

He didn't look.

My point is faith looks impossibilities in the face and laughs.

Come on, let's quit messing around with some kind of low thing that can some low bar request.

Let's ask for the impossible.

Let's ask for the real thing that we really, really need, and most of the time a miracle means you need a big thing from God.

Quit being worried about whether he wants to do.

He wants to make every need you have.

He's already proven that with his word.

So faith asks for the impossible.

Praise God.

With man it's impossible, but not with God.

With God, all things are possible.

And the Bible says all things are possible to him that believes, to him that believes.

Are you a believer tonight?

I believe you are, amen.

And in the last one, this very interesting found in verse four.

And so, and immediately in verse three, immediately, his leprosy was clean.

I mean, he was cleansed that moment.

And then Jesus said something very curious to him.

He said see, you tell no man, but go your way, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them.

Under who?

Under the priests?

Under the Hoity-Toyty Religious crowd that hasn't done their job.

The backslidden ministry, the ministry that's been preaching to you that miracles passed away, the ministry that's been preaching to you that God, god, the age of miracles has passed.

See, there's still, there's still religious people like that today.

And and I tell you what God is in the place right now of rebuking some of these leaders, because they ought to know better.

They have the same Bible I do.

They have access to the same information that I have, and it's changed my life.

Why hasn't it changed theirs?

Because they're in infected with unbelief.

That's why, and they spread it like a virus from their pulpit.

Pastor, you sound so mean.

Well, I'm just.

You know, I am tired of religion, and so was Jesus.

Jesus was rebuking the religious crowd with this miracle, so I'm just following along.

What Jesus did, you know?

So he said offer the, the sacrifice that Moses commanded.

So in my Bible it's got a little letter out there, the gift, and it says Leviticus 14.

So if you've got a study Bible, you would be able to go back to Leviticus 14, read what this, what this is.

So I'm gonna go back to Leviticus 14 and and this is the sacrifice that that Moses commanded, verse 4, that the priest Will take for him, that is to be cleansed.

He's to take two birds alive and he's to take and clean and cedar wood, alive and clean.

The birds are alive and clean cedar wood, say the birds, okay, clean cedar wood, scarlet and Hissop.

So this is simple, symbolic.

You've got two birds, you've got a Sacrificial bird and then you've got the bird it is that's going to be set free.

So he says the priest shall come in that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water.

Now that bird represents Jesus, the death of Jesus, our sacrifice.

He was our substitute.

Now you've got a living bird.

See, in this, in this, in this whole Practice that they would do in the Jewish law, I'm I'm thinking that the priest he went and showed himself to it probably never performed one of these rights.

He had probably never seen anyone cleansed of leprosy in his whole life, and so he wasn't even.

He had to go back and read his Bible and find out how it worked.

He probably had never even performed one of these rituals before.

But look how the ritual is.

So now what if you got left?

You've got a living bird and you take it.

See the other, the other bird has been killed over running water, living water, and and then, and then you've got the living bird.

You take it in the cedar wood.

What's the cedar wood?

Stand for the cross and you shall dip them.

And the living bird and the hyssop.

What is hyssop?

At your confession, at your mouth?

Hyssop is a plant, you know, but.

But it stands for speaking.

And so you take the hyssop, and you can take the cedar wood and the scarlet, of course stands for the blood of Jesus Dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed and then sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed From the leprosy, seven times and pronounce him clean.

So you take all that with the hyssop and you sprinkle it.

Well, we sprinkle ourselves with the, with the Word of God, we sprinkle ourselves by the blood of Jesus on our, on our, on our flesh, and so then the living bird is let go.

Or what does that signify?

The, the person with the leprosy, is free.

He has no more a Obligation to run around saying he's unclean.

He can resume, resume normal life and normal Activities.

He's been set free, and whom the Sun sets free is free.

Indeed, just look at the Jewish law as a tip, type and shadow of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

So Jesus said now you're clean.

Now go back to the priests, make them go through this whole thing and let them know that you met, you met the author of that, of that of that right, that that they're practicing over you.

I met the Messiah that did this.

I've already been clean.

You know, have to make me clean.

I'm already clean, I'm just gonna go through the motions just to make it legal.

Oh, I tell you you ought to lift your hand on that, because it's already happened that we're not.

We don't have to wait for some Religious right.

We don't have to break, wait for some religious guru or anybody else to declare us healed or free.

We already are free by the blood of the Lamb, and we can appropriate that.

The Hissop is our speaking about it.

We are free, and whom the Sun sets free is free indeed, and so I, you know.

I challenge you to look at the five Principles that I shared with you and see if there's anything missing in this, the greatest year yet, because God wants you to have all of his greatest blessings in this year.

He, he, he gave us a challenge.

He laid down, as it were, the gauntlet last September, said you know, you're gonna look back on 2020 and say this is my great, my goodness, this is the greatest year of my life, and for that to happen, that means that you have to have miracles.

So let's get busy and let's get every miracle that we need to fulfill what God said Amen.

We love you and praise God for you.

Hallelujah, I trust that helped you tonight.