Miracle Minded

I was praying about what to do today, and the Lord said, let Jeannie bring the word today.

And so I mentioned to Jeannie about it. She goes, I have a word,

Pastor. And I said, I know you do.

Will you welcome Jeannie Burgess to this black farm?

Awesome, Jeannie. Let me pray over you before you get started.

Father, in Jesus' name, I lift Jeannie up to you,

and I thank you that the utterance that you have spoken to her in her studies

over the last couple of weeks will come out with clarity and precision that

it will inspire us to go to the next level.

Speak through her mind, think through her mind and speak through her mouth today in Jesus' name.

Amen. Have fun, Jeannie.

Well, amen. Thank you, Pastor. It's an honor that Pastor Devon and Stacey trust

me to share a word to all of you And I've been saying this to Pastor Devon and

Stacey for a few weeks. I just keep saying I'm so excited. I'm just so excited.

I'm just excited for what God is doing.

What he's doing in our personal lives, in the ministry, in the kingdom of God.

And it was interesting as we were sitting here listening to the offering,

I thought, well, pastor's going

to go ahead and just share the whole word that the Lord has given me.

But that's another thing that I'm excited about. That you serve in a church

that is led by the Holy Spirit.

You hear from worship to prayer to the offering. and it all connects and it's

not because we've met before the service and said this is what we're going to say.

It's because each person yields to the Holy Spirit and allows the Spirit to

flow through them. And so I am excited.

I'm excited that we are about to step into a new phase, a new season.

We are literally today standing in, it came to pass.

All throughout the Word, you open the Word of God and you hear,

God said, and it came to pass.

God said, and it came to pass. God said, and it came to pass.

And that's exactly what has happened here at True Life.

God said I have a place for you. He said I am preparing something new.

He said get ready blessings upon blessings upon blessings so fast that your

head would spin it came to pass that's what we're standing in right now and and.

I'm usually a quiet person, but yesterday as I was walking through the halls

of the new building that God has blessed us with, I was just overcome with excitement,

to see the Lord's hand on every building because there's vision there.

There's the glory of God there. The hand of the Lord is upon that,

and those rooms and those chairs are going to be full with people who need Jesus.

This is not just a building that we're coming together just to meet for just

any purpose. It's for the purpose to have people experience true life.

And so that's not part of my message. So as I prepare to start,

I want you to stay with me today.

I am going to attempt to start out slow because I want it to be like a launch

pad. I want it to be like a runway as we prepare to soar into this next transition.

Say that again. Hold on one second. Oh, yes. Please, children,

you may be dismissed to your class.

I'm glad that you all got that word, too. Be excited because that children's ministry is filling up.

The nursery is filling up. The teens, they're filling up with the glory of God.

Spiritual growth, physical growth.

So, lock in today because I believe this is a word not just for true life.

It's a word for you in your everyday life.

So, for those in the building and those that are watching online,

if you don't know me, my name is Jeannie Burgess, and I have the honor to be

able to serve under Pastor Devon here at True Life.

And it is a true honor to be able to serve. And today's message is called Miracle-Minded.

So Father, in the name of Jesus, I ask that you anoint this word.

Help me, Lord, to articulate it exactly the way you would want it.

Help me, Father, not to add anything to your word or take anything out.

I ask, Lord, that you just open the people's hearts and allow them to receive

a word from you, to have an encounter with Christ today.

And Satan, we bind you from any hindrances. We bind you from any distractions in Jesus' name.

Amen. So open your Bibles to 2 Kings and meet me in chapter 4.

Verse 1, it says, One day a widow of a member of the group of prophets came

to Elijah and cried out, My husband who served you is dead,

and you know how he feared the Lord.

But now a creditor has come threatening to take my two sons as slaves.

What can I do to help you, Elijah asked. Tell me, what do you have in the house?

And this widow replied, nothing at all except a flask of olive oil, she replied.

In that moment where she is overcome with such fear and a burden in her life,

when the man of God came to her and said, what do you have?

She said nothing. But as the pastor said in the offering, something is not nothing.

See, she actually had something, but when she looked at that something,

she looked at it as insignificant.

And oftentimes in our life, when God is speaking a word to us or he's calling us into something.

We put limitations on God. We put limitations on ourself because we look at

that thing, that talent, that idea, and we look at it as insignificant.

So she looks at it in verse 2, and she says, Nothing at all,

except a flask of olive oil, she replied.

And Elijah said, Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your friends and neighbors.

Then go into your house with your sons and shut the door behind you.

There is a spiritual concept about when the Lord speaks to you,

you keep that between you and God at times.

There's a time to share, but there's a time that you guard that as sacred,

as he's getting some things out of you and preparing you.

He told her, go in your house and close the door behind you.

And pour olive oil from your flask into the jars, setting aside each one aside until it is filled.

And so she did as she was told. And her sons kept bringing jars to her,

and she filled one after another.

And soon every container was full to the brim.

Bring me another jar, she said to one of her sons. There aren't any more,

he told her. And then the olive oil stopped flowing.

And when she told the man of God what had happened, he said to her,

Now sell the olive oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on what is left over.

There was a natural debt that she had to take care of.

There was a natural need, and God supplied that natural need.

And not only did he just provide the need, he made sure that there was more

left over for them to live on.

That shows me that our loving father, who is an alive God, he is a powerful God.

He's not dead. He's alive. He's well.

And he is caring about your natural needs. He also cares about our spiritual needs.

When this widow was in a natural need, a natural debt, he provided natural means.

When each one of us was in spiritual debt because of the curse,

because of the fall in the Garden of Eden, God provided a spiritual Savior.

He sent us Jesus to break that spiritual debt.

And it's interesting to me, the key points that I want you to see in this is

that in verse 2, the woman continued to look at what she had as insignificant.

She felt like she had nothing to give to the Lord.

But in the eyes of God, that small thing that she thought was insignificant

was very significant to the Lord.

And the callings that he's placed on your life that you may think is so insignificant,

you do not realize the significance in your life and the influence that you have around you.

It's interesting to me that when she had the jars full of oil and she went to

sell them, I think of the people that gave her those jars.

They were empty. Why did they have empty jars? Were they in need?

Who did she sell the jars of oil back to?

Did she sell them to the creditors? Or did she sell them to people in need to

further help them, and then with those profits, go back and pay off her debts?

Those are things that I think about.

And the reason I think about that is the Lord spoke to me, and when he said, be miracle-minded.

He also said being miracle-minded is being others-minded.

It is biblical to ask the Lord for a miracle in your own life,

to believe, to ask big, bold prayers, and believe you're going to receive it.

100%. I want to challenge you to go further with this, though,

and I want you to be the miracle for somebody else.

I want you to be so miracle-minded, especially as we step into this new phase,

to be others-minded of those around you.

We're going to go down in 2 Kings 4 to verse 42.

It says, One day a man from this city brought the man of God a sack of fresh

grain and 20 loaves of barley bread from the first grain of his harvest.

So this shows me that he brought Elijah his first fruit.

And Elijah said, give it to the people so they can eat. Isn't it interesting

that Elijah didn't give it to the people? He could have.

But Elijah told the man, give it to the people so they can eat.

What? His servant exclaimed. Feed a hundred people with this insignificant grain?

What? Feed a hundred people with only this? He's thinking insignificant.

He is thinking this is nothing compared to a hundred people.

How is this going to provide for them?

But something is not nothing.

If you go on in 43, it says, But Elisha repeated, Give it to the people so they can eat.

For this is what the Lord says, Everyone will eat, and there will even be some left over.

And when they gave it to the people, there was plenty for all and some left

over, just as the Lord had promised.

Again, we see this in verse 43, that the servant is looking at this need,

that's presented before him, and he's thinking, this is so insignificant.

How is this going to help the people?

And I'm challenging you with these stories because I want you to see yourself in these stories,

and I want you to see yourself that when a need is presented,

whether in your individual life, whether it's next Sunday when new people are

coming in, or when someone's asking you for prayer.

I don't want you to see your faith and the talents that God has put in you as insignificant.

It is something.

And now in the New Testament in Mark 6, starting in verse 35, it says, this is Jesus.

And it says, late in the afternoon, his disciples came to him and said,

this is a remote place and it's already getting late.

Send the crowds away so that they can go to nearby towns and villages and buy something to eat.

Here the disciples are looking at this large multitude.

We know later that it's 5,000 men plus women and children. That's a large multitude,

and these disciples are telling Jesus, send them away.

They have a need, but send them away because we can't meet that need.

We don't have anything to provide for them. We have insufficiency. Send them away.

They were trying to figure out, how are we going to meet this need?

And I know I'm not the only one that's ever been in that situation.

How in the world is this going to work out? How am I going to meet this need?

But in verse 37, Jesus said, you feed them.

They're telling Jesus, send them away. And he says, you feed them. You help them.

Jesus was miracle-minded. He was others-minded.

And he was training the disciples to meet a need by walking in faith.

He was showing them there's another way of living, and it's called walking by faith, not by sight.

Release your faith. He was challenging them and stretching them. With what, they asked?

We'd have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all of these people.

In verse 38, it says, how much bread do you have, he asked. Go and find out.

And they came back and reported, we have five loaves of bread and two fish.

And then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the

green grass. And so they sat down in groups of 50 or 100.

And Jesus took the provision.

He took what they had.

He took the five loaves and the two fish. And the first thing he did was present it to the Father.

That insufficiency, what you think is nothing, but it's actually something.

The first step is not to try to stretch it out and make it work,

but you take it to the Father and you ask him to bless it.

So Jesus took it, he blessed it, and then breaking it into pieces,

he kept giving the bread to the disciples.

Jesus didn't pass it out.

He gave it to his disciples to do it.

And so they distributed it to the people, and he also divided the fish for everyone to share.

And they all ate as much as they wanted, not as much as they needed.

As much as they wanted. And afterwards, the disciples picked up 12 baskets of

leftover bread and fish, and a total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.

The disciples and us so often think, how?

How? When a need comes up in our life, and especially as we are standing on

the word about this summer being a summer of miracles.

We are releasing our faith for miracles in our midst.

When you are standing and believing for miracles, one of the biggest enemies that is.

How is this going to take place? And how is a loud enemy?

And how is an enemy that keeps coming back over and over and over?

You get a word, and you read it, and you praise, and you worship God,

and you step out of the house, and here comes a how.

And it's loud. How are you going to do this? Is this really going to work out?

But Jesus is calling us to not walk by sight, not try to figure it out,

not to try to control the situation.

He's telling us, put your eyes on my promise and walk by faith.

That is exactly what we have had

the privilege and the honor to see Pastor Devon do all of these months.

A word from the Lord, a promise from the Word, and we're walking by faith into it came to pass.

That is why when I say I'm so excited, it's not just about a building.

I'm excited because I see God moving.

I see God working in our midst.

Now, turn with me to Mark 8 verse 1. Here Jesus is,

Mark 8:1

feeding another multitude. I think we focus on the 5,000, but there was another

group that got fed by Jesus.

And here it says in Mark 8 verse 1, it says, about this time another large crowd

Mark 8:1

had gathered, and the people ran out of food again.

Jesus is not in the running out business. That is not his perfect plan. Now, I love this part.

Jesus called his disciples and told them.

Now, he's setting them up for redemption.

And I wish I could say that they took him on that. But it says in verse 2,

it says, Jesus says, Now, I feel sorry for these people.

They have been here with me for three days, and they have nothing left to eat.

If I send them away, now he already knew the last time we were here,

the last time this happened, every single one of you said the solution is to send the people away.

So I'm trying to help you disciples, and I'm going to go ahead and tell you

we're not sending them away.

So he says, I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for three

days, and they have nothing left to eat.

If I send them away hungry, they will faint along the way, for some of them

have come a long distance.

And his disciples replied, how are we supposed to find enough food to feed them

out here in the wilderness? Now, I wish the disciples would have been like, we've been here before.

But before I rag on the disciples so much, I have to look at myself and know

I've been through a lot with God.

And he's been faithful. And I've seen his goodness. And there are times that

I say, well, how is this going to work, God?

How am I going to pay this bill? when he's probably like, we've already been here before.

I've been faithful. You've never went without. I've always come through.

It's the same thing.

They said, how are we supposed to feed them with enough food?

And in verse 5, Jesus asked, how much bread do you have?

Seven loaves, they replied. And so here we go again.

Jesus told the people to sit down on the ground. What did he do?

With what they thought was nothing, what they thought was insignificant,

he took it to the Father. That's what we do.

I'm repeating this for you because I need repetition. I know you need repetition.

The disciples needed repetition.

When we have a need, we take it to the Lord. We ask God, Father,

what would you have me to do in this situation?

So Jesus took it. He broke it. He blessed it.

And then it says in verse 7, a few small fish were found too.

And so Jesus also blessed these and told the disciples to distribute them.

In verse 8, they ate as much as they wanted.

Not what they needed, but what they wanted. And afterwards, the disciples picked

up seven large baskets of leftover food. God is not going to cause you to run

out. He wants you to run over.

And so it says here that afterwards, the disciples picked up seven large baskets of leftover food.

And there were about 5,000 men in the crowd that day.

And Jesus sent them home as after they had eaten.

Jesus was stretching the disciples.

To be the solution. And I think it is just so funny. I'm going to share this.

We're going to talk about the elephant in the room. Every time,

I'm not confessing this, but when I go to give a word, either the sound's going

to go out or the rain's going to come down. But I said, that's the glory of

God. That's why I haven't stopped. That's the glory of God.

Thank you, Jesus. We needed rain, so let it rain.

Let it rain. And you know, I think about Noah when he was building that ark

or he was having people build the ark, and those people said,

you don't know what you're talking about.

Isn't it? What is rain? You know, it never rained before. It came from the ground.

And they said, you crazy. You don't know what you're talking about.

What are you talking about? Your church is going to buy a church debt-free.

What are you talking about? But guess what? when it started raining, they believed him.

And I just thank the Lord that he's doing a miracle in each one of our lives.

And here again, to be miracle minded is to be others minded.

We have to get our thoughts so in line with when I have a need,

I take it to God and this is how he provides.

So that way when someone else comes across our path and they're like,

I need prayer, I don't know what to do. I need help.

We know what to do because we

have the solution in us, and that's the Holy Spirit. That's Christ in us.

So at the end of this story, I'm going to paraphrase this part because,

Jesus feeds these 4,000, they get in the boat, they go back to the other side,

and as they're going to this new place, Jesus gets off the boat and he encounters the Pharisees.

Now, the Pharisees started questioning Jesus about miracles,

but their intent of their heart was not right.

They were saying and demanding show us a miracle show us a sign show us a miracle

now these pharisees they knew jesus they had heard about jesus,

they had heard about him turning water into wine

he had taught in the in the temple and on the streets and to the crowds i'm

sure they had heard or some of them maybe had even been there when he fed the multitudes When he,

healed the sick and set people free, they were aware of his miracles.

They did not want to see a miracle. They wanted to know how.

On what authority are you doing? And I think because they wanted control,

they wanted to know how are you doing this? Because I want to be able to have that control.

But it wasn't I want that so I can help other people.

It was so I can control the people.

So they're demanding a miracle, and Jesus knew the intent of their heart.

And Jesus said, I'm not showing this generation a miracle.

And he got back on the boat, and he went to the other side.

Now, as we pick up in Mark 8, in verse 14, two different things is going on in the boat.

The disciples are having a moment of...

In the natural. And Jesus is sitting there pondering his conversations with

the Pharisees, and he's thinking in the spirit.

And so in verse 14, it says, but the disciples, they're on this boat,

and they had forgotten to bring any food.

And they had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. And as they were

crossing the lake, Jesus leans back over there, and he says, watch out.

Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod.

And at this, they began to argue with each other because they hadn't brought any bread.

And Jesus knew what they were saying. So he said, why are you arguing about having no bread?

Don't you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in?

You have eyes, can't you see? You have ears, can't you hear?

Don't you remember anything at all?

I think that's what he says to me sometimes.

When I fed the 5,000 with the five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers

did you pick up afterwards? Twelve, they answered.

And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers

did you pick up? Seven, they said.

Don't you understand yet, he asked them.

Jesus was warning them, and he's warning us to not be natural-minded like the

Pharisees, but to walk by faith. He did not care if they had forgotten physical food.

He was warning them, do not let your hearts be like the Pharisees of,

I have to figure this out.

Before I receive this miracle, I have to know how are you going to do this, Lord?

What are the steps I have to take? I need the control. That's not what Jesus wants us to do.

That's not faith. Faith is a childlike belief.

That my father tells me something, and I believe it. It's a childlike belief.

And as we step into the new church and this new season next week,

and we encounter new people, I believe that God is stretching us,

stretching us to be miracle-minded, stretching us to be others-minded.

And we, and each one of us, has a solution for those people.

We have a solution for mankind.

But we can't limit God by trying to figure out how is he going to use me.

It's when he tells you something, you obey.

And you trust him. You trust him with the outcome. You know,

I think about when we lay hands on people.

There are some that will get...

They'll set limits. I can't lay hands on people. I can't pray for people because

I can't heal them. I can't fix them.

That's not what God is asking you to do.

Jesus said, go and lay hands on the sick and they will be healed.

He didn't say, go lay hands on the sick and I'm going to do this through you and you do this.

He said, go lay hands on the sick in his name and they'll be healed.

So you are a vessel that you have to be willing. You have to be obedient to

let the Spirit of God flow through you.

And you have to be willing and obedient to let God flow through you,

not just on Sunday at church and around the people that you like.

It has to be every day when you step out of that house, you are an ambassador for Christ.

You have a gift in you that you have to share with the world.

You have to be miracle-minded every day, thinking of others.

And I was going to share this too of when you're willing and obedient and you're

believing God to use you, he takes that natural and he mixes it with his supernatural.

That's when miracles take place.

Faith is that breeding ground for miracles.

I think about other countries where we hear stories of so many miracles,

and it almost seems like you hear more stories of miracles and testimonies in other countries.

And then I look at the environment, that breeding ground for miracles.

There's such faith. They're so hungry.

They're so hungry for a living God.

They're so hungry for love, a story of a savior that loved me so much that he gave his life for me.

That's unheard of in any other religion.

In any other religion, they are hungry for an intimate relationship with a Savior that loves them.

And as we are stepping into this newness, I feel that God has placed creative ideas in some of you.

Creative ideas that need to be shared, need to be released.

There's businesses that need to start.

Because God knows what that's going to do for someone else.

There are conversations and phone calls that need to be made.

That maybe God has been putting it on your heart and you just keep putting it off.

But how do you know that you're not a miracle for somebody? They're waiting

for that phone call. You are their answered prayer.

There's relationships and reconciliation that needs to take place.

To be miracle-minded, you have to be others-minded.

And one of the last verses I want to go to is Matthew 6.33.

And in Matthew 6.33, it says, Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live

righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

When you are focused on seeking God and seeking his kingdom.

Miracles that are taking place in other people's lives and miracles that you

have a part to play in, God is going to take care of his own.

That's when Pastor was up here saying about getting involved in the building campaign.

And when you give your tithes and your offerings, it's not just something you

do out of a religious habit.

You are seeking first the kingdom of God. God is going to take care of you.

I've seen it. He's faithful.

When you're involved and you are striving to help meet someone else's need,

God is going to take care of you each and every time.

And when you're doing this, when you're seeking God and you are being miracle-minded

and you're thinking of others and striving to help them,

God steps in those moments and he says I believe that he just says with joy

that you're about my father's business right Jesus would always say I'm about

my father's business and that's what we should be about my father's business

and I believe that when you,

are striving to serve the Lord and to meet those people's needs that's how you're

going to experience true life so stand to your feet I want to pray for you this

morning or this afternoon,

and I want you this week as we prepare to transition into the new building and.

I want you to do two things. I want you to be bold enough to do two things.

One, I want you to go before the Lord with your biggest need,

your biggest, boldest prayer for you and your family.

And you go before your Lord and you present that to him. No limits, no holding back.

Take that to the Lord and present it to him.

And the second thing I want you to do is then shift your mindset to,

God, how can I be a miracle for someone else this week?

Who will you bring across my path this week that I have the solution in me for them?

I'm an answered prayer for someone else. And I want you to really allow the

Lord to challenge you on that.

Two things this week. Be bold enough to ask God for a bold prayer.

Whether you're standing for healing, whether you're standing for relationships

to be repaired, you're standing to be released from addictions,

you need breakthroughs in your finances.

Take it before the Lord and be bold.

And then say, God, how can I help someone else?

Because then you're miracle-minded just like Jesus and you are seeking his kingdom

and he's going to take care of all of the rest.