When we build our faith on emotions and experience instead of God’s Word.

<p>When we build our faith on emotions and experience instead of God’s Word.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

David Wright

Experience Driving Faith

There was an article published in the Adventist Review some time ago, maybe 25 years ago or so, and it told a story about a woman who had been in a car accident and as a result of that car accident had some severe issues with her back and some significant back pain.

And as time went on, as you can imagine, she tried just about everything.

She went to every physician, every specialist that she knew of, Yet day after day after day, long night after long night after long night, she continued to experience significant back pain.

Well, some 20 years of this went by and it was in a conversation with 1 of her neighbors that her neighbor invited her to 1 of her camp meetings.

There's going to be a healing service at our camp meeting.

And so after some coaxing and some talking and so on, she decided she would go and sure enough she found herself there in the midst of this service and the invitation was sent forth If anybody has an issue that they'd like to be relieved from and to be healed from and so on, and her neighbor just really started nudging her, this is your chance, go ahead, go forward.

So with some reluctance, this woman went forward And they went through their little routine of I don't know exactly what what had happened but as a result of The whole be healed process Sure enough The back felt better than it ever felt in Fact for 20 years.

She hasn't felt this good and That night for the first night.

She slept soundly all through the night, didn't get up once.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, she said.

Well, a little bit more time went on, and that following week, the pastor made a visit to her house, and they were conversing, and she was telling about her experience.

And in that conversation, the pastor simply asked, are you sure that this healing is from the Lord?

And so they continued to talk about that a little bit.

And that night, This woman got down by her bed, on her knees, and prayed what she described was the hardest prayer she ever prayed.

And at the core of her prayer was this idea, Lord, I want to believe that you healed me.

But if this was not you, if you were not in this, I don't want anything to do with it.

So she got up off her knees, she got into bed, and she fell asleep.

And just a few hours later, the all too familiar back pain returned.

So this morning, I simply want to ask you, can God perform miracles?

Turn with me and your Bible to a well-known verse in Ephesians.

As we're going to seek to answer 3 questions this morning, but I want to begin right here.

My Bible reads, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers Against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places therefore Take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand." And the verse goes on to talk about this armor of God.

And so this morning I want to do my best to simply look at 3 different questions.

The first, what is the purpose of miracles?

Have you ever asked yourself that question?

Secondly, how will the devil use miracles to deceive people at end time?

And thirdly, how can we tell the difference between true and false miracles, genuine or counterfeit?

So those are the 3 questions I seek to look at this morning, but let's begin with the first 1.

Well, if we were to take the Gospels, for instance, Some would simply say Jesus often performed great miracles to reward people's faith.

But the question is, did Jesus only heal on the basis of faith?

And if faith is the sole criteria for healing, then what is the reverse or inverse of that?

If I'm not healed of my cancer, Is it because I don't have enough faith?

So let's suppose you're battling with cancer and you pray for the Lord to take it away and nothing seems to happen.

And your friend comes alongside of you and says, you know Dave what your problem is you don't have enough faith So now I have 2 problems I have cancer I don't have enough faith And so I try to work on my faith and everything else, but still nothing changes.

And then I have another friend that comes along and says, you know Dave, what your problem is, is that you have a known sin in your life that you haven't dealt with yet.

I have cancer, I don't have enough faith, and now there's a known sin in my life that is hindering, that is impeding.

So if healing and miracles are grounded in faith alone, and if I'm not healed because there's a sin in my life, then I have some real problems I have to wrestle with, cancer being the minimal of all of them, wouldn't you say?

And really that puts us right back to this idea in the Bible that if the Lord blesses, it's because you are right with God.

And if bad things happen, it's because of your sinful lifestyle.

But if We study the 3 and a half years of Jesus' ministry in the New Testament.

If you take all 4 Gospels and weed out all the duplicate miracles, are you with me?

As well as recognize that there's a few isolated instances where Jesus goes and heals the whole town.

But if you take out those isolated instances, there are only 24 separate miracles in all 4 Gospel accounts.

Turn with me, if you will, to Luke chapter 7.

Luke chapter 7, and this is the story of the widow of Nain's son raised from the dead.

Luke chapter 7 and we'll begin in verse 11 Luke 7 verse 11 Now it happened the day after that, he went into the city called Nain, and many of his disciples went with him, and a large crowd.

And when he came near the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

Not only is she losing her son, but she's losing her livelihood, a place to stay, everything.

And a large crowd from the city was with her.

Verse 13, when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep.

Then he came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood still.

And he said, young man, I say to you, arise.

So he who was dead sat up and began to speak, and he presented him to his mother.

Wouldn't that have been an amazing thing to witness?

But my question to you is, who in this story has tremendous faith?

Perhaps an obvious question, but did Jesus heal in this instance because of the great faith of the dead son?

We don't have any account of that So to say if you have enough faith misses the point the criteria here is Jesus overwhelming what you remember the term compassion So what's the purpose of miracles That's the question we're seeking to answer.

And I'd say, number 1, the purpose of miracles, the result of miracles is always larger than the individual but to give glory to God.

Let's look at verse 16 and 17 of this passage.

Verse 16, then fear came upon all, and they glorified who?

Saying, a great prophet has risen up among us, and God has visited his people.

And the report about him went throughout all Judea and all the surrounding region.

So the root of miracles is always God's love and compassion, and the results of miracles is always larger than the individual, but it's about bringing glory to God.

But let's place yourself now in the time of Jesus.

When Jesus came claiming to be the Son of God, where were his credentials?

And could that have been part of the reason why Jesus healed, at times, entire villages?

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Experience Driving Faith

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