Miracles | Part Four

Thank you for listening to the Colonel Christian Center podcast.

Our desire is that it's Christian.

Would you just do something with me?

Would you just stand up for a moment and just uh greet some of the people beside you?

Welcome them to church this morning.

Welcome.

Some people came in a little early.

Amen.

There's a scripture in uh Psalms chapter thirty-four, verse nine, and uh, we're talking about the series on miracles, and it says this it says, Worship God if you want the best.

Amen.

That word worship means to celebrate, to give thanks, to give God like, just give God uh back to him what he's given to you.

Reflect back to him the joy, reflect back to him the love, reflect back to him the the uh pleasure, back to him, worship God if you want the best.

Worshiping opens doors to all of his goodness.

Another scripture says it this way worship the Lord in his whole worship the Lord, you holy people, for those who worship him will lack nothing.

Would you say that?

Lack nothing.

Those who worship him lack nothing.

One of the greatest uh experiences you can have is actually worship, because you go, you can go into worship with a heavy heart.

And in a heavy place, through worship, that that heaviness gets cast off and your heart becomes enlightened.

How many of you have ever experienced that?

You've been walking through a tough, dark place, a shadowy place.

But when you walk in a place of worship, it's like everything breaks off around you and you feel lifted inside.

When you walk in a place of miracles, and you're walking in a in an atmosphere of miracles, it's impossible to walk in an atmosphere uh experiencing miracles without walking in an atmosphere of worship, celebrating God, saying yay.

I like how the message says it's like saying, yay, God.

What do you say, yay, God?

Yay, God.

No, you gotta set your yay, God.

You guys, yay, God.

Come on, it's God.

This is the the worshipper's heart.

The Bible says those who worship him worship in spirit and in truth.

There's an authenticity that comes out of your heart.

There's a there's a reason why we worship.

There's a reason why we come to church in the morning.

And the Bible says, uh, I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.

There's a place of expectation.

I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord.

I'm ready.

I got dressed up.

I know you mean.

I look good today.

But I like um, but you get dressed up in the morning because you're coming to the house of the Lord, because in the Lord's house, in the place of worship, in an authentic place where you're celebrating God with your heart, there is a space, there's an atmosphere where you lack nothing.

You lack nothing.

Now God is here.

He's a God of miracles.

He is a miracle-working God.

And when we live in this expectation of God, we live big, daring, we live believing, we live faith-filled.

We don't live small, we don't live shy, we don't live timid, we live with faith, believing that God can do all things.

Amen.

Amen.

So we're gonna continue uh speaking today and carrying on this message of miracles because I believe that God has more for us.

Amen.

Father, we thank you for your presence this morning.

We thank you, Lord, that you are the God of miracles.

We thank you and we just say, Yay, God.

Yay, God, you are awesome, you are great, you are bigger than our greatest problem.

You are more than enough for us.

And today, Father, we celebrate you, we lift you up, and we say that we lack nothing when we are in your presence.

And so we give you thanks this morning in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So I'm man, what a great morning and honoring uh Principal Steve, uh Cox and his wife.

Man, it is just we just like Steve was my coach, Steve was my teammates in soccer, Steve, like we've just enjoyed so many good years, and uh so many kids, you know, came in through the elementary and into our youth programs, into our church, and they're leading us today.

And it's because of you, and let's just give them another hand.

We just want to celebrate you.

Yeah, you don't have to cheer for yourself, Steve, but go for it.

Yay, God.

Look what God has done in me.

That's awesome.

Uh, we are living in a space where people question whether God is still in the business of doing miracles.

We live in a space where people still question.

You know, yes, the scripture is full of examples of what Jesus did back then, but the question is, what is he doing now?

Well, we're here to just remind the church that the Christian life is supposed to be a miraculous life.

Looking for opportunities, looking for uh space where God does miracles.

One of the greatest miracles is actually the new life that we have that we celebrate today in communion, that we have because of Jesus Christ.

That uh He took something old, He took something old, He took something imperfect, and He made you perfect.

And which is wonderful because you being perfect is quite the miracle.

When you some of you are laughing, not your neighbor, it's true, it is a miracle.

It's uh God did something for you, but there are people who would say that God doesn't do this anymore, but the scripture says in Hebrews chapter 8, verse 6, it says that we have a better covenant, and that was what the the new cup reminded us of today that there is a better covenant today than that of the old covenant, and so God did miracles within the old covenant, old covenant, and he's doing miracles now in the new covenant.

Hebrews 8:6

It's a better covenant than the old covenant, and God did miracles in the old.

We just can't wait to see what God has in the new.

So this new covenant is for us, and so we look forward to what God is doing.

Um, today I want to take you through a little bit of an illustration in scripture and talk to you about the source, uh, being connected to the source, connected to the vine, connected to that which will uh enable that atmosphere of miracles and that experience of miracles.

And before I get into John 15, I just want to backtrack a little bit, give you a little bit of context and set the stage for um what we're gonna talk about.

So before Jesus started speaking with his disciples, he actually was at this last supper, doing what we just did a few moments ago, breaking bread and reminding the his closest disciples uh what was to come.

And Jesus had walked into this room with 12 uh of his disciples, he'd spent time with over his life with, in his ministry, he'd spent time with them.

And over three years, he had showed them all sorts, he had taught them about who the father was.

He had demonstrated incredible people, miracles, uh, signs, wonders.

He had taught them uh teachings that at the time were revolutionary and and revelationary.

Like it just enlightened the people.

They just walked around and they were just like, wow, they had never thought about God that way before.

But Jesus was in this room, and he started this meal by washing the feet of his disciples, all twelve.

He came, he had a robe around his waist, and he began to wash their feet, and the Bible says with his cloak he he dried their feet off, and he just prepared them, cleaned them for the meal.

And he began to serve them and he began to show the example to them of life as a Christian before he leaves, knowing that he's gonna be crucified shortly after.

He was trying to demonstrate to them how they should live.

And so his first lesson is serve one another, bless one another, get down, wash each other's feet.

If you have to get into the dirt with them, experience the the grime that they may have walked through.

Get in there and help people out.

Carry one another.

Don't look at like, don't be afraid of the filth.

And he's reminding his disciples listen, I'm the perfect one.

I'm Jesus, the Son of God, and I'm going to get down.

And if I can get down, you can get down too.

You can go to that place with people, you can humble yourself with them and begin to wash their feet.

And Jesus does this, and during the meal, he announces that one of them is going to betray him.

And after having that meal, Judas stands up and Jesus says, Go ahead, go and do what you have to do, Judas.

And Judas begins to leave, Judas leaves eventually betraying Jesus.

So now it's just Jesus and the eleven disciples.

And he says a few things to them.

And it's his last words to his disciples on how they should live.

After demonstrating love for each other, he said, I want you to remember this, and I want you to recognize this illustration at this moment that there were 12, and one got up and disconnected, and disconnected from me.

And he begins to use this example of the vine and the branches.

And Judas had detached himself and from uh the true vine.

And this was on Jesus' mind as he's talking to his disciples.

And this is how it reads in chapter 15, verses 1 through 5 here or 8.

He says, This, I'm the real vine, my father's the farmer.

He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes.

And every branch that is grape-bearing, he prunes back, so it will even bear more.

You are already pruned back by the message I've spoken.

So live in me, make your home in me just as I do in you.

In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself, but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you're joined to me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

When you're joined with me, I will be with and I with you, the relation, intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant.

Separated, you can't produce a thing.

Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up, thrown on the bonfire.

But you make yourselves at home with me, and my words are at home in you, and you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon.

This is how my father shows who he is.

When you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.

And so he's saying this on the back of Judas disconnecting, Judas getting up and leaving Jesus and the other 11 disciples at the table.

He's saying, listen, if you want to mature, if you want to produce, if you want to experience true life, you need to stay connected.

You need to stay connected to the vine.

If you're not connected to the vine, you're going to die.

Life happens when you're connected to me.

When you are in me and I am in you, and we're living together.

That's where the true life is.

So the question is this when we move forward, are we abiding with him or are we just attached to him?

Ten times in this portion of Scripture, Jesus reminds his disciples, he says, Listen, abide in me, live in me, grow in me, connect in me.

And this word abide, it means to stay, to continue.

In our modern language, it would be like an engagement, a marriage, where you're saying, you know, the two are going to become one.

We're going to join together and we're going to become inseparable.

This lifestyle of faith, this lifestyle of worship, this lifestyle of relationship should be so close.

It's an abiding, it's it's living in one another, being vitally joined to that vine.

It's more than just remaining, it's connecting.

So before in the scripture, people who followed Jesus in Jesus' day, uh, they were actually known as people.

They weren't called Christians.

They were called those who were actually in Christ.

In Christ, the word Christian is actually more of a modernized term.

It was the people that were like Christ, but the word that identified disciples was that they were in Christ.

The scripture talks about those who are in Christ.

And when you're in Christ, there's something miraculous that happens.

Therefore, if any was in anyone is in Christ, the new creation is come.

The old is gone.

Would you say gone?

Gone, and the new is here.

All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us this ministry of reconciliation.

That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them.

And he and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

We are therefore God's or Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his approval through us or his appeal through us.

We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.

Don't be separated, be connected, be at peace, be joined, be in Christ.

God made him who had no sin to be sinned, so that in him we might be connected and have that righteousness in God.

So there is hope.

There is hope for us.

And you history is full, and the scripture is full of people who tried to live life on their own, doing it their own way, and were separated from God.

But their life wasn't over from that point.

They could still come into the vine and say, say, this is the ministry of reconciliation.

I'm separated.

And Paul is saying this: even though you're separated, there's still hope for you.

There's a ministry called reconciliation, which means you can now become connected to the vine, and I want you to reconnect.

And God will push his life and bring life into what's dead, what once was dead, and bring life into it.

I showed a um, I came across a list of some of the heroes of our faith.

And the miracle in their life is that God took a dead thing and made it alive.

And in their life, their life was dead.

And you might say, well, these were heroes.

Well, let's just look at this little slide here.

Um, Noah was a drunk, Abraham was too old, Isaac was a daydreamer, Jacob was a liar.

Leah, she had uh she the Bible says she was ugly, okay?

But uh Joseph was abused, Moses had a stuttering problem, Jeremiah and Timothy were too young.

Peter denied Christ, Gideon was afraid, Samson had long hair.

That was just that's what he had.

He was a womanizer, Rahab was a prostitute, David was an adulterer, murderer, Elijah was suicidal, Jonah ran from God, Job went bankrupt, John the Baptist ate bugs, they all had problems.

People got problems.

But there were these people in all through scripture, you can't tell me that you wouldn't look at one of those and say, Noah, oh man, what a great guy.

No, there was a time Noah was disconnected.

There was a time David was disconnected.

There was a time Peter, who denied Christ, was disconnected.

But because of this ministry of reconciliation, because God allows us to reconnect, to connect to the vine, because God allows us to do that, the miracle is this that those things that we sometimes call dead, God doesn't see as dead.

He sees the opportunity to bring life into dead things.

So there is hope.

Amen.

There is hope for us.

There is hope for you.

There is hope.

Each one of our heroes experienced a miracle, and God has a miracle for you too.

Now God cares, He cares for you.

This Jesus said his last words to his disciples listen, you uh my father is this great vine tender.

He cares for the vine.

He cares for you.

The scripture actually uses different terms.

He's the husbandman, he's the one who will tend take tender um uh care, nurturing each vine to make sure that they bring, they come and they have life.

No one cares like the father cares.

No, he no one knows what the father knows.

He knows what you need, he knows what you're thinking, he knows what you fear, he knows what in Intimidates you.

He knows what causes you to lose peace.

He knows how to fulfill your need.

He knows how to handle your fear and give you the courage to face it.

He knows what you need in order to overcome.

The greatest lie in our culture today is that God doesn't care.

God doesn't care where you're at.

Despite what you may think of yourself, God cares and knows and loves you.

All about you.

He knows your thoughts.

He knows your intention.

He knows your desire and your drive.

And he's there for you.

So God loves us.

And sometimes we wonder, well, God, if you love us, then why do you prune us?

You know what pruning is?

It's cutting, cutting back.

And one of the big misconceptions that we have is we say, God, we need a miracle.

And we believe and we trust God for a miracle that's on the way, and we go ahead pursuing that miracle, and we feel like there's obstacles in our way.

And we feel like things get worse.

But the scripture says that God loves us and He will prune us so that we can actually bear fruit.

We have these trees at my parents' house.

I hated these trees sometimes, like because I was responsible for pruning these trees when I lived at home.

And there are these parts of the tree called stickers.

You know what those are?

They're like shoots that grow from the tree, but they don't bear any fruit.

And what you have to do is you wait for an appropriate time of the year, and you gotta cut back all these stickers.

Or what are they called?

Suckers.

Well, we call them stickers.

So I'm right and you're right.

We're both right.

But we call them because but we'll call them your way, suckers.

They just suck the life out of the tree.

And we would go to that tree and we would cut it back.

And I thought I cut back a lot.

And then I left home, and my parents decided, you know what, Brody doesn't live here anymore.

I'm not, we gotta we'll hire someone to come, a professional come and just prune back these trees.

And the first time they pruned back these trees, I thought they did it all wrong.

Because they literally cut these trees back so far back that I thought they killed the tree.

I thought, I did a good job all these years, and now they cut these trees back.

But I'll have you know, that next year, those trees grew back bigger than they had ever been.

And what happens is that we sometimes think that God is cutting us back when God is actually moving us forward.

And so sometimes God caring for you, correcting you, that correction isn't rejection.

God loves you, and that's why he disciplines you.

That's why he's helping you, he's bumping you along the way.

I want you to go this way.

I want you to keep on this track, and he's tapping you along the way, and you feel like, stop it.

Keep like get off my back.

I'm trying to move this way that I feel is in the direction of my inheritance.

And God has a different journey for you and a way for you to get there.

But he cares for you, but because he cares for you, sometimes he will cut you, he will cut you back, he'll prune you back on purpose to help you.

And he was saying, I believe at that point, around the table, he was thinking of Peter at that point.

Peter, one of the disciples, who was eventually told, you know, you're gonna deny me three times.

And Jesus and Peter's like, no, not gonna happen.

Not me.

I'm the big boy of the group here, I'm the tough kid, is one of your disciples.

And and later on, there he is denying Christ in front of children as his as his friend is hanging on a cross or or being pro being prosecuted to be crucified.

We need to remember that God prunes those he loves, but God wants you to abide in this vine.

And the reason why we abide in the vine is it's the only way to bear fruit, it's the only way to see the miracle.

The branch doesn't have to strain to bear fruit, but because the branch is connected to the vine, we get fruit because of our position.

Fruit because of who we're connected to.

Who we're connected to makes all the difference.

So we get into Christ, don't depart from him.

And in today's culture, I realize it's so easy to like, to be uprooted, to be disconnected.

And I say to you today, like we've seen in testimony during this series here, if you put your roots down, this is good soil.

KCC is good soil, and you put your roots down in this place, and God can do something miraculous for you, for your family, in your community, in your neighborhood, with your neighbors, in your body.

God can do something miraculous in you.

So we connect, don't be uprooted, don't listen to the lie that says, I'm gonna be better off on my own.

It's the lie of the enemy says, Don't disconnect.

Look for ways to reconnect, look for ways to deep to in a in a deeper way connect.

Don't push back.

Every time you feel that sense to push away and you feel that wedge being driven in to like step back, that's when you step in.

That's when you step in.

We do uh, I have a program here at the church just to help people take those next steps to step in.

And uh, we call it our next steps program.

It's part of our our journey for people to take them from a place of just walking through the doors, learning about who we are as a church, to actually having them walk in a place where they're like living their dream.

Every Sunday they come to church or throughout the week, there's they're in a place where they're they're just alive because they're operating out of their sweet spot and uh in their calling.

And so today, even after class, and we invite you to come and join us for about a half an hour.

We just help you identify what's God's spiritual gift, what's the spiritual gift that God has created you uh in you, and how what's your passion like?

And and find out your leadership style so that if we can find that, help you find that place, we believe that uh you'll grow and together we'll grow.

So we encourage you to be a part of that.

It's open for you to come, it's uh after service, uh about 20 minutes to a half an hour, and we'll help you find that spot.

Because we want you to be planted.

The scripture says this, and just as I close here, it says, Blessed are those who are planted in the house of God, for they will prosper in the courts of God.

How many of you want to be able to prosper?

That's right.

So get planted.

The scripture says that the only way we'll grow is when we're connected and we're abiding in the vine.

Amen.

Would you just bow your heads with me this morning?

Father, we thank you for your presence with us this morning.

We do say, Yea, God.

Yay, God.

Yay, God, you are so good.

You are such an awesome God.

And we just celebrate you today.

We celebrate you because you said, Lord, those who worship you will lack nothing.

Those who worship you lack nothing.

And Father, in our lives, we have so much need.

We have friends who have need, we have people who have need.

But together, Lord, we just say we put our trust in you.

We connect to the vine, and we say, Yay, God, we can't do it in ourselves, but because of you, because you are our source, Lord, we can have the life and the strength, and we will bear fruit, and we will bear fruit in any season, Lord, because we're drawing from you.

And your your life, Lord, is not uh, and the life that you give isn't contingent upon the economy or politics or or uh culture, but your life is based on who you are.

And so, and you are a good God, you are a God who never fails us.

And so we give you thanks today, Father, for that new life we have because of you.

We are a new creation, the old is dead, the new has come.

Amen.

Let's give the Lord a hand this morning.

Amen.