Miracles 101- Seeking : Acts 1:6-14; 2;1-13

Date: November 13, 2005
Passage: Acts 1:6-14: 2:1-13
Message: Miracles 101 - Seeking
Series: What Do You Expect?

We are having a new air conditioner put in the family room.
We made a time to be home for the installers to come and sure enough on the day we got a phone call to say they had been caught up on a job and wouldn't be there until a few hours later.

However later on, the boss phoned back to say that they didn't even have our air conditioner in stock and that it was now on back order!
They would be able to install it in a couple of week's time!
My first thought was ..

That's about what I expected!
It's a sad thing but I have gotten used to this sort of thing.
I don't have great expectations when people say ..
'I'll be there, trust me!'

I have been mulling over a few things spiritually lately.
What have I gotten used to?
Do I have any great expectations?
Has faith become predictable and rational?

I am still thinking, but I believe many of have consigned God within the realms of predictability because our lifestyles don't have room for the unpredictable works of God.

We can't afford for faith to get messy.
Our diary doesn't have room for God to be creative.
We are trying to fit faith in with everything else we want in life!

Problem is, God can't be contained like that!
Everywhere I read in the Bible I see God doing the UN-EXPLAINABLE and the UN-CONTAINABLE!

While ago I bumped into someone I knew at Koorong Bookshop. This fella is ..
You know there are some Christians that are kind of embarrassing ..you know .when your with them you worry that everyone is going to think that's what your like!!!!

He walked up to me and in a big voice that everyone in the shop could hear.
'How are you brother! Have you had any miracles today!!'

Wanted to say,
'No, but I'd like one right now. I love you to disappear!!'

He's a funny old thing but his words keep echoing in my head. Had any miracles today?
My rational mind immediately thinks about the miracle of life, the air I breathe and I gratefully go on my way through another predictable day of faith!

Luke 5 the disciples had been out fishing all night and it was an ordinary night.
The fish weren't biting.
When they came to shore, Jesus told them to go back out and throw their nets on then other side of a boat!
One thing I've learned about fishermen ..they all think they know how to fish!

This must have been hard for Peter to take advice, but he did it, and they 'caught such a large number of fish that the nets began to break.'
They actually had to signal another boat to help them haul in the fish. And both boats were so full they began to sink.
The boats couldn't contain all that they caught!

Jesus did something unexplainable and uncontainable.
When was the last time that happened to us?
I'm not talking about fishing.

When was the last time God did something unexplainable and uncontainable in our lives!!!!
When did we last have that sense that we were blessed beyond our ability to contain it!!

What do we expect?
I got an SMS from Nick Lawrence last Saturday.
Nick has been doing the Preaching class I have been running, and I'd asked them to come up with a little intro to a message.
The SMS said, not sure what passage to chose, can you help?

I chose a very spiritual approach.
Mark was with me and I said,
'What do you reacon old mate?'
'What about Philippians 3:12-14' - Pressing On!

I sent it back to Nick and I got a reply straight back.
'Can't believe it. That is my favourite passage. It is the same one I was thinking of using!'

Do you know there are 31,103 verses in the Bible and God managed to get us to agree on those last 3. How's that!!
What do we expect?
Do we expect God to do something great with his Word when we seek him?
Do we expect the Holy Spirit can still unite our minds in agreement in times like this?

Forty days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into the heaven. Before he left, he gave the disciples pretty simple instructions. Acts 1:8 says, 'Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.'

So the disciples spent the next TEN DAYS seeking God. Acts 1:14 says, 'They all joined together constantly in prayer.'
Acts 2 is actually Day 10 of the prayer meeting.

Acts 2:1 says, 'When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit enabled.'

Let me make an observation: the Day of Pentecost was totally unplanned. It's not like the disciples woke up on the Day of Pentecost and said, 'I feel like speaking in tongues today.'

They had no category for what was about to happen. It's not like they made an appointment to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Peter didn't prepare a sermon. And they certainly didn't plan a baptism service.

I'm not sure how the day started, but I'm pretty sure the disciples got up and took a shower and brushed their teeth like they did everyday. I'm pretty sure they put their pants on one leg at a time. They got a bowl of cereal. They read the morning paper. And then they met for prayer. But this day started out like any other day.

I don't think they had any idea that the Holy Spirit would literally rock the house that day. There is no way they could have manufactured what happened.

Here is the bottom line: you can't PLAN the unexplainable and uncontainable but you can PREPARE for it!
They had no idea what God was going to do, but daily they had PREPARED their hearts for it!

They prayed and they expected God to do something!

Here's a novel thought.
What if we lived like that?
What if we prayed daily, seeking God, allowing him to break into our world at any time with that which was unexplainable and uncontainable!
Eg.
We are approaching Christmas.
That is what happened way back then.
Nobody picked it!
A baby .in a manger .to a poor couple from Nazareth .revealed to some ornery old shepherds!

Unexplainable, yet it has now been uncontainable for 2000 years!

You know I think the best things that happen in life are unplanned!
When it comes to holidays you can plan every detail, but it's the unplanned that you generally come home and talk about!

Years ago I did what every good father has to do at least once in their child's life.
I took the kids on a camping holiday.
We set off around Tasmania with a big tent, camping stove and lantern and we were going to rough it for 4 weeks!

Everything was going as planned until one night while we were in our tent a force 10 gale rushed off Mt Wellington and threatened to blow us into the Derwent River!!
What a night.
We have never forgotten how I managed to save my family from death and destruction that night!!!

As a result of that, I declared that for the next 3 nights we would stay in a high class Motor Inn, with heated pool, spa and sauna etc.
We had a ball - it was the highlight of our holiday!
You can't plan a force 10 gale into your holiday, but it made all the difference!

Some of the best things in life are totally unplanned and unscripted. And that isn't just true relationally or recreationally. It's true spiritually.

Part of us wants everything scripted out, but that isn't the way God works!

Many of us make the mistake of focusing our energies on telling God what to do and how to do it and when to do it. What if, instead of spending all of our energy trying to make PLANS for God, we spent that energy SEEKING God?

For what it's worth, that is the prescription for anxiety that Jesus gave in Matthew 6. He said,
'Don't worry about tomorrow.' He said, 'Seek first his kingdom.'
Too many of us try to figure things out first and seek second later on when things have returned to normal!

When you read Acts 2 you realise that God couldn't have scripted things any better than He did. The disciples start speaking in tongues.
This happens on the day of Pentecost, one of three pilgrimage feasts when Jews from around the ancient world would travel to Jerusalem.

It was called the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), and in the Old Testament was originally an agricultural festival celebrating and giving thanks for the "first fruits" of the early spring harvest (Lev 23, Exod 23, 34).

The New Testament writers associate the events of Acts 2 with Pentecost, and relate it to the prophecies of Joel 2 and promises of Jesus (Acts 1:8). In both, the emphasis is on empowerment through the Holy Spirit to enable the people of God to witness to Jesus Christ.

And these disciples start speaking in all of their native tongues. About three thousand pilgrims were baptised that day and turned into an army of 3,000 missionaries that God sent back to their homes.

Maybe we should stop trying to plan things for God. Maybe we should stick to prayer and let God handle logistics-the when, where, and how. God is an amazing event coordinator.

This series is NOT about seeking miracles. It's about seeking God.
You can't plan miracles but you can prepare for them as you seek God!

God wants to sanctify every part of you. The word 'sanctify' means 'to see apart for His purposes.'
He wants to sanctify your motives so you do what you do for the right reasons.
He wants to sanctify your imagination so you dream God dreams.
He wants to sanctify your experiences and use them to serve His purposes.
He wants to sanctify your education.
He wants to sanctify your talents.
He wants to sanctify your competitive streak.
He wants to sanctify your expectations.

I once had someone come to me and say,
I hope you don't mind, but I've asked a Pentecostal Pastor to pray for me!

I don't mind who prays for who, but I've always had a problem with one part of the body of Christ hijacking the term 'Pentecostal'

There is no such thing as a 'non-Pentecostal'
Paul says in Romans 8
v9 you, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

v15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father'. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.

We are all Pentecostal in the true sense of the word!
My own observation over many years is that -
'Pentecostals' have an EXPECTATION of the Spirit at work
'Conservatives' have an EXPLANATION of the Spirit at work.

Hosea 10:12 says, 'Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground.'

Unplowed ground is ground that has been ignored. The surface has gotten hard and nothing can be planted. And nothing grows through the surface.

Hosea continues, 'It is time to seek the Lord until He comes and showers righteousness on you.'
We can't control the rain. But we can prepare the soil. I'm afraid that too many of us worry about rain instead of preparing the soil. Our job is to prepare the soil and seek God until it rains!

So here's the $64,000 question: Where has the soil of your heart become hardened? The key to that question is this question:
Where have you lost hope or lost joy?
What have you stopped thinking about because it's too painful?
What have you stopped praying about because it's too unbelievable?

Answer those questions and you'll know where you need to plow!
Here is the greatest danger we face in a series like this. The last thing I want to do is manufacture miracles. That is what Abraham did. He got tired of waiting so he decided to 'help God along' by sleeping with Hagar and manufacturing Ishmael.

But at the same time -
I think some of us are so afraid of disappointment that we don't believe God for anything anymore. It's safer. It's easier. But that isn't how God wants us to live.

In the words of Oswald Chambers,
'If you will give God the right to yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you.'