EXPECT IT!!!

Last Sunday we had a sermon that has really stuck with me.  Not that the others I have heard have not stuck with me. This one however really seemed to strike a cord in me.   It was such a short, simple and to the point teaching that packed a mighty punch. I found myself getting out of my seat at the end of church and opening the doors of at the back of the sanctuary so that the worship music could spill out into the neighborhood that surrounds our church.

We need to have faith to expect everything is possible.  To expect that God can do anything! Do you have that kind of expectation? If you are not sure what I mean by this go to book of Matthew and start reading chapters 8 and 9.  The amazing things done by Christ in those two chapters show us that anything is possible and that we should expect to see God’s mighty hand moving today even when we are not face to face with Jesus in the physical sense that the disciples were.   

The sermon was given using 3 examples from Matthew to make his point and he made it in such a clear statement that I have to say it was one of the best sermons I have ever heard:

*Matthew 9:20-22 Just than a women who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.  She said to herself,  “if I only touch his cloak, I will be healed” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter, he said your faith has healed you.  And the woman was healed from that moment.   She knew and expected that all she had to do was grab his garment.  Her expectation turned into reality.

*Matthew 8:1-3 when he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.  A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord if you are willing can you make me clean” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing he said.  “Be clean!” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.

He expected and knew his leprosy would be gone.  

*Matthew 9:27-29 As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him and he asked them, “ Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes Lord,” they replied. Than he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you” They expected/believed Jesus could do this and he did.

Do you see the common thread here? THEY ALL EXPECTED!! Great things are happening all over the world today.  Healings that could only come from God!!! It makes me think… have we in the United States forgotten to “EXPECT” that God can do anything?  Have we put him in a box up on the shelf?  Do we take him down and open the box only when we need Him or it is convenient for us?  It is time that we in America start to EXPECT THAT GOD CAN DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING.  Let’s get God out of the box we have put him in and let’s start expecting!!! I know I “EXPECTED” His holy spirit would flood the neighborhood when I got out of my seat and opened the doors of the church last Sunday!