Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - When Pigs Fly, Part 4: Miracles of Provision

Episode Date: May 27, 2018

Chalk it up to coincidence or luck if you want, but we think there’s something bigger going on when the impossible happens. Are you searching for hope? Are you waiting for a miracle in your life? Today might just be the day When Pigs Fly. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, I'm excited to share with you part four of our message series on miracles called When Pigs Fly. It's been really exciting to hear all the different ways that God is answering prayers and you're seeing his miraculous work in your lives. In fact, today we're going to do something a little bit different. I'm going to introduce this message. And then after a few minutes, I'm going to toss to your local campus pastor to help me Team Teach, week number four of When Pigs Fly.

What are we going to talk about today? I want to talk to you today about the miracle of provision, the miracle of provision. Let's be honest, for so many of us, money can be tight at times. How many of you say, you know what I'm talking about? For example, you might be a single parent trying to raise three kids, and it seems like there's often so much more month than there is money. or you may make a relatively strong income. I mean, you might have six-figure income,

and yet you're still working to make ends meet because the expenses are so high. You're paying off student loan debt. You've got medical debt. You've got car payments. You've got kids in their activities, and you're doing everything you can just to stay above water. It can be very difficult in our culture today

because money often seems really, really, really tight. I want to walk into this message today, and help bring a word of encouragement as we look at different stories of provision in Scripture. The good news is that there are actually countless numbers of stories where people feared that they didn't have enough. If you're taking notes, this is the good news. In every story of need,

there is a miracle of provision. All through Scripture, every time you see a story. of need, you also see a miracle of provision over and over and over again in the Gospels, whenever there's thousands of people who are hungry on a hillside. The disciples cry out to Jesus, what are we going to do? And Jesus says, you feed them. And the disciples says, but we only have some loaves and some fishes. Jesus takes the loaves and the fishes, lifts it up to heaven, blesses them. God multiplies, provides for everyone, even to the point where there were 12 basket fools left over. Why 12 basketfuls? My opinion is so that each disciple could have a doggy bag

to take home, realizing the miraculous provision of a very faithful God. In the Old Testament, the prophet Elijah was talking to a widow who was scared for her future. She felt like she didn't have enough. The prophet said, what do you have? And she said, I don't have anything much at all. maybe you feel like this. She said, I simply have a small jar of olive oil. And he asked her to pour that into some containers. And as long as she had containers, God miraculously provided from very little,

he multiplied it to very, very much. Whether it's bread from heaven, whether it's meat delivered by birds. Maybe it's a giant fish provided to rescue, a rebellious man named Jonah in every story of need, there is miraculous provision. In fact, there's going to be a little bit of provision today because I've got a need of some help with this message. So could you please help me welcome the miraculous provision of a great local campus pastor. Help me welcome your pastor today.

Life Church. It is always great to be with family. It's incredibly humbling to be able to share a pulpit with Pastor Craig. And I think we have to pause for a minute and recognize yesterday Craig and Amy celebrated 27 years of marriage. No small thing. I'm so glad you're with us today. There's a story of a woman who single mom always struggled to make ends meet, but this woman deeply believed in God. She would pray out loud all the time. Jesus, I believe you're going to meet my needs and the neighbors would hear it every day. And there's this one guy who lives next door who hated God, utterly hated God, and this woman drove him crazy. So finally one day, he said, you know, I'm going to mess with this woman. So I'm going to go to the grocery store

and buy some groceries and that's what he did. Put three bags of groceries, hid behind the door when she came home, she saw the groceries on the front door, threw her hands up. Jesus, I knew you were going to meet my knees. He jumps out. He says, you fool. God didn't provide those groceries. I provided those groceries. God is not good. He doesn't exist. She looks at him and she throws her hands up again. Oh, Jesus, you were even better than I thought. You provided for my needs and made the devil pay the bill. That's some good news. I want to encourage you in Philippians 419, Paul gave some great news. news to the church in Philippi.

And my God will meet, say it with me. He'll meet what? All your needs, according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Church, do you know that your God is the giver of all good things? The Bible says every good and perfect gift comes from him. And yet, before we dive into this idea of God being a miraculous provider, we have to acknowledge something we just saw in scripture. And that is this. God promises to meet your needs. He's never promised to provide your wants. Never. And yet we tend to struggle with this idea of,

God, where are you? Because we misinterpret what we're expecting him to do. How many of us know there is a difference between what we need and what we want? For example, we all need clothes to But what we want is the limited edition of Didas Ultraboos, right, Seth? It's like that's what we want. We have issues with those. We love those shoes. We need rest. But what we want is 14 days at an non-inclusive resort looking over an emerald blue ocean, right?

Somebody's saying amen back there. Like, I get it. We need a house, a shelter of some kind to live. And what we want is an ermid farmhouse designed specifically by Chip and Joyna Gaines. right that's what we want but not necessarily what we need and there is a difference so there are three principles of the miracles of god's provision we're going to look at today so if you're taking notes write this first thought down i love this so much when god guides he always provides when god is the one guiding you his provision is always following Isaiah 50 at 11

super rich verse. The Lord will guide you always, right? So as he's guiding you, what's he going to do? Then he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land. When everything around you is barren, the God of the universe is going to provide your needs when you are being led by him. But understand this. He doesn't provide for your dreams. He doesn't respond to your ambitions. He simply, provides for His will. And when you're walking in sync with His will and purpose, his provision will always, always be there. Some of you might think, God, where are you?

God, I've got a mortgage payment that's due. At the same time that my car payment is due, I've planned a vacation that I felt led by the spirit to book, not knowing how I was going to pay for it. and I've yet to pay off Christmas of 2014. Where are you, God? Understand something. Is it possible that God has provided your needs,

yet you took the provision and spent it on your wants? I'm going to get up in your business a little bit today. Because here's the thing. God's provision is not a get-out-of-jill-free card for our stupid financial decisions. It's just not. And I believe God is calling us back to this place of understanding what his promises are and just letting those flow into our lives. One of my favorite examples in the Old Testament is the story of a man named Abraham.

You may not be familiar with this story, but Abraham and his wife Sarah ate, longed for one thing. And it was a child, a son. And the son was the promise of God that Abraham would become the father of many nations. And so day after day, Abraham and Sarah, they prayed and they waited. Year after year, prayed, waited. Decade after decade, talking about faith. Prayed and waited and finally. The promise comes in the birth of a baby boy, Isaac.

And God puts Abraham to the test. He says, Abraham, take your son to the mountain and offer him as a sacrifice. How long has he waited for this, boy? And God, you want me to take him up and sacrifice him. Just imagine the walk up the mountain. Isaac has seen his father sacrifice and worship God before. He's carrying the wood. He knows what's happened.

Isaac asks his daddy, where is the sacrifice, dad? And Abraham responds in Genesis 22, verse 8, and he says, God himself will provide the lamb. You see that faith? So they go up the mountain, they build an altar, courageously, faithfully, Abraham lays his son on the altar, ties him down, and lifts a knife. Now in our culture, none of this makes sense to us. At this time, it was a totally different story. And the moment his knife goes up, the Bible says that an angel appears and says,

don't lay a hand on that boy. For I know now that you fear God. Now here's where the provision. comes. Verse 13 of Genesis 22. Abraham looked up and over in the thicket, he sees a ram caught by its horns. How convenient. He went over and took the ram, sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham named this mountain, this place, Jehovah Jira. The Lord will provide. What do we know? Abraham was fixed on the will of God, fixed on it. He answered his son before he even reached the top. I know my God will provide the lamb himself. What we often struggle with if we're honest is not being fixed on God but being fixated on what we lack.

And if that's the lens you're looking at your life through, you're going to see what you describe as an unfaithful God when he has always been true to keep his promises. One of my favorite, like, real life examples of this is a couple, a family that attends this location of Life Church, Clayton and Kim Meyer. Some of you know who they are, incredible family. This adventure started in 2013 with a burden by God placed on their heart to adopt a child internationally. And they had counted the cost. How much time will this impact us? How much stress will it be? And no doubt, adopting a child internationally is extremely expensive.

2014, they get approved for one child. 2015, God, as he often does, throws a curveball. Kim gets a picture in the mail. And in this picture was not one toddler. not one infant, but three teenagers, all from the nation of Haiti. This isn't what we kind of planned. And if you just take all the stress and the time and the flights and the financial implications of this, now multiply it times three. Yet Kim is looking at this picture, and all she can think of is these are my sons. these are my boys.

And so the adventure continues. And the process of adoption, the financial implication, was unbelievable. And then four years and five months after God's calling, this family boards a plane together to come home with these three boys being now a part of the Meyer family. God is always faithful. Patterson, Carlo, and Meridno are with us today, and you are a miracle of God, not just to a family, but to an entire church. Because there are so many of you in this room that felt prompted of the Holy Spirit to say,

I feel led to give. I feel led to help. I feel led to provide in some way. And to this day, many of you, life groups will walk up saying, hey, how are our boys as though we have all invested in this story because we have God? Listen, when God is the one guiding you, his provision is always there. You're going to have moments where you fear, moments where you freak out, but his provision is always there so long as he's leading you and you are obeying. Can we give God praise for what he is doing in our church? Amazing. When God guides, he always provides. The second thing, write this down. God miraculously

multiplies what is given. It is a miracle how God works. Now, sometimes God is going to do it all by himself. He doesn't need you. Like, he doesn't need any of us. So sometimes he's going to save Jonah single-handedly. You're drowning. I'm going to send a fish. It's going to swallow you. You'll be fine. Sometimes the Israelites are out in the wilderness and God decides, you know what, I'm going to put a panera bread right in heaven and drop bagels down. There weren't bagels, but it was bread. And for those of you that are new faith, there wasn't literally a panera in the sky. But bread did fall from heaven. God's like, I got this.

But sometimes, church, God wants to build your faith. Sometimes God invites you to be a part of his miracle. When does he do it? How does he do it? He simply asks you to give. He asks you to give. And then what does he do? Miraculously, he multiplies what you give.

Think about the three stories that Craig talked about earlier in this message. The widow pours out the oil. When did the multiplication happen before she poured it as she poured it? When did the loaves and the fish multiply to feed the multitude on the mountainside? Not before, as the little boy said, Jesus, you could have my lunch. When did Abraham become the father of many nations? Many argue it was the moment that he offered to God his first and only son. This is a miracle in the adventure of being a follower of Jesus Christ.

Please hear this. Do not listen to the things that I'm saying as though it's like a prosperity theology that if you sow this seed, if you give like $100 today, you're going to go out in the parking lot and your 96 corolla is now a Mercedes G-Wagon. Don't think that's, if that's, if that doesn't, does happen, please put it on Instagram because you would get a ton of likes, but it's not going to happen. I'm just telling you. That's not what this is. What this is is a miracle of God's multiplication and is simply inviting you to be a part of that miracle. What do we know? Our God

always miraculously multiplies what is given. Paul writes the church in Corinth. Nine Verse 10, this generous God who supplies abundant seed for the farmer, which becomes bread for our meals, multiplication that is already happening, is even more extravagant towards you. First, he supplies every need plus more. Then he multiplies the seed when? Say it with me, as you sow it. If he multiplied it before we sowed it, it wouldn't require any faith. And the whole point of this is for us to grow in our faith. So God multiplies it as we sow it. This principle goes all the way back to the tithe. Some believe that the tithe was a part of the Levitical law. It was in there, but the first example of the tithe was 400 years prior to God giving Moses the law. And then it was reaffirmed by Jesus

in the New Testament. And there is very few things that declare in your own life that God is your provider like honoring him with the tithe. What is it? It's the first tenth of our income. It's not 10% of your income. It's the first 10% of your income because God always has to be first. When I was young in my faith, brand new Christian, this was very, very hard for me. Because, growing up, we didn't have much. We had multiple Christmases and birthdays where we got nothing, most where we didn't get what we wanted. And I just had baggage in my head so that I just knew, if God ever blessed me, if I ever got to raise at my job, I just got to hold on to it. And I had hit a wall in my faith journey, a wall. And Cindy, I had a mentor in our lives that said,

this is your next step. And God wants to show off in your life, but you have to trust him first. And he said this, when you make the decision to tithe, I want you to go and buy a book. Like we didn't have Amazon back then, so we physically, I think you went to like Hallmark, hallmark. And she bought this real chick journal with flowers on it. I wasn't very appreciative of that. And this you wrote on the cover, God's provision book, Beale Family, 1993. And we started to tithe. And then within a week, the first story of God's faithfulness went in that book. Another month, another story.

And another story. A couple years ago by, the book is full. And years later, I'm sitting with my oldest son who plays in the band. And he's 6'4 now. He's much smaller back then. I could take him in wrestling back then. I can't now. He's sitting on my lap.

I think he was about seven years old. And we were reading through the stories together. And he was starting to recognize, I live in a miraculous family. And my family serves a miraculous God. And the most personal stories in that book had nothing to do with God blessing us financially. It was all about what he was doing in our hearts as we were putting him first.

Church, I'm telling you, for some of you, this is a brick wall you're hitting up against until you learn to fully trust him. Yeah, we can celebrate that. It's good news. I had an aha moment when I was studying the story of Abraham because I was scratching my head. God, why would you ask him for Isaac? Was it God's will to take Isaac's, to take his son, Isaac? No. Why would God ask him that?

God knew the purpose that he had for Abraham's life. And he knew that Abraham couldn't carry the weight of his calling if he was holding anything back from God. Does God really need your 10%? laughably know. It is all his. What do we know? God has a purpose for your life. And God wants you to know that when you truly get to the point of putting him first in every area, now you're ready to carry the weight of his calling on your life. And that's why God longs for us to put him first. And I think back to our church.

God knew the purpose that he had for this place before we knew his purpose for this place. And many years ago, we were up to our eyeballs in debt. We were barely making payroll. We were totally gripped with fear. And God calls us, give everything away. Give it all away. It made no sense. Can we even afford to give all of our resources away?

We literally would have to hire people and pay salaries to give this stuff away. yet the calling of God was clear, and our leadership stepped out in faith. And they said, if any church in America can use this to reach one person for Christ, it's worth the investment. You fast forward. From that moment, from that seed, God started a miracle. Today, 29 campuses. We do not owe a dime to anyone.

No one, zero debt. Everything's paid for in cash. Every location that we have a live church campus, we generously invest in that community. Hundreds of thousands of pastors receive free resources as a result of your giving, and literally almost 400 million people have God's word in their heart language. Why? Because every time you give, every time you sow a seed, God multiplies it to change the eternity of somebody else. Can somebody give God praise for the miracle of what he does? It is a miracle. And it is all because God multiplies what you give. Don't ever forget this. In every story of need, there is always a miracle of provision. Hey, could all of you help me just show love and appreciation to our amazing faithful campus pastors? Thank you guys for all that you do.

Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for the way that you love people. I'm so proud of our pastors and God has provided us with amazing spiritual leaders. Let's review what we've covered so far to do. what do we know? Thought number one, when God guides, he always provides. If we pursue his will, his provision will follow. When God directs our steps, he always puts provision in our path. When God guides, he provides. Secondly, God miraculously multiplies what is given. God multiplies what is given.

What you keep is all you have, but what you give, God multiplies. Thought number three, and this to me is the most exciting. Number three, what do we know? That you might be a part of God's miraculous provision. You might be an answer to someone else's prayer. In fact, this is what Paul told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 9-11. He said that you will be enriched in every way. Why?

So you could have more and more for yourself? No, he said you'll be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. Do you realize that when God miraculously provides, you often might be a part of a miracle story when God uses what he trusts to you to be a blessing or an answered prayer to someone else.

In fact, I don't know how God might use you, but when you give in the church and through the church, someone named Muhammad, true story from India, who is saved through church online, might thank God because you gave to digital missions to help make this possible. Or the couple's marriage recently from Life Church in Omaha, Nebraska, completely healed because of the ministry and the work as you gave to spaces and places to make a newer campus available to people in a new community.

Or Jenny, who couldn't pay her mortgage at the Fort Worth campus and had her need met because you gave faithfully to God. Vanya, who had her life changed, when finally the Bible was available to her in her own language and she could discover the truth of Jesus. Or Rasta, at my own location, who was a mom. Muslim from Iran that was invited into life church. And when he walked in for the very first time, he simply felt the very real power of God. He was completely changed, started bringing lots of friends with him. And on the first weekend of this very series, he baptized one of his very only friends who, guess what? They are thanking God because you gave. You might be a part of

the miraculous provision. You have something someone needs and you blessed them with it. generosity, a word of encouragement, a prayer, a listening ear in a time of need. And they will thank God because of your faithfulness. Because God may meet a need in someone else's life through you. Wherever there's a need in scripture, our God miraculously provides. What if I don't have enough. What if I can't make a difference? There's a difference between fear and faith. Fear asks, what if I run out? Faith asks, what do I have to give? Fear says, I can't afford to tithe. Faith says 90% with God's blessings goes further than 100% without. Fear says, I don't have enough. faith says my God is more than enough. You remember, you internalize it, you believe it. If you are in need,

scripture says this, and my God will meet all of your needs according to his riches and his glory in Christ Jesus. And sometimes our God will miraculously meet a need. through you. All of our churches praying together today, God, we thank you that wherever there is a need, God, you miraculously show up and by your power, through your goodness, you continue to meet needs. As you're praying today at all of our different churches, there are many of you who are in need right now. Some of you know someone you love, very close to you, that's in need. That's very true for my family. all of our churches who say, I'm either in need or I know someone who is, and I am believing for the faithful provision of God.

Would you lift up your hands right now? Just all of our churches, just lift up your hands. As there are hands going up at all the different locations. Father, we thank you for your goodness, for your faithfulness, for your miraculous provision. God, I ask that those who tithes for the very first time that you would prove your self faithful. God, in any way when we plant a seed in faith, we ask God for a miraculous multiplying harvest. God, meet needs. And now, God, I pray for those who all of a sudden recognize we may have more than we need in some area of our lives. God, I ask that we would also

have the blessing of being an answer to prayer for someone else. who's in need. God prompt us when we can be a part of your miracle provision story in the life of someone who is in need. God use us. Show us what we have. Give us faith and not fear to be a part of your miraculous provision stories. As you keep praying today at all of our different churches, you have a need that is far bigger than financial or material. In fact, those of you who are without Christ, your greatest need is a spiritual need. And the good news is, wherever there is need, our God miraculously meets that need.

All of our churches, there are some of you that honestly, you don't know where you stand with God. And let me tell you, if you don't know where you stand, there's a very high likelihood that you're not in a right relationship with God. You might feel guilty for things that you've done wrong. You might feel the burden and the weight of your own sinfulness. What do I do? Do I work harder?

Do I try to become religious? do I try to stop doing bad things, start doing good things? Let me tell you great news. God provided the answer for your spiritual need. It's not your behavior. It is his son and his name is Jesus. Who is Jesus? He is the sinless, perfect son of God,

who was born of a virgin, didn't inherit a sin nature from an earthly father, but a divine nature from a heavenly father lived perfect in every way. He was the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins. He is the answer. to our greatest problem. Jesus, the son of God.

He died in our place, rose from the dead, so that anyone, and this includes you, who calls on his name, would be saved, transformed, and made completely new. In fact, in all of our churches, there are those of you, you recognize, you have a spiritual need. You can't meet that need on your own. There is no person, no thing,

no amount of worldly provision that can meet that need. It's a spiritual need that needs to be met by a spiritual savior. His name is Jesus, and that's why you're here right now, all of our churches, those who say, yes, I need him, I need his grace. I turn from my sins, I call on him. When you call on the name of Jesus, he will hear your prayer, forgive your sins, and make you brand new. All of our churches today, those who say, yes, I need him.

Yes, I turn to him. Lift your hands high right now. All of our churches, lift them up all over the place as we see hands in all of our churches going up at church online. You click right below me. And as we celebrate with lives being changed all over the world by the miraculous provision of a faithful God, would you join your voices with those around you? Simply pray, Heavenly Father, forgive my sins, make me brand new. Fill me with your spirit so I can follow you and serve you for the rest of my life.

Thank you for meeting my deepest need. Now use me to meet needs in others' lives. Thank you for new life. Now you have mine. In Jesus' name, I pray. And all of our life church locations, would you help me in worshiping God and welcoming those born into his family today?

Thank you so much for joining us for this week's message. We're so honored and excited to be a part of all that God is doing in and through your life. We recognize that becoming a fully devoted follower of Christ is a journey, and there's some next steps involved in that process. So we have a great resource for you to use to help you do just that. You can go to Life.church slash Next. This is a great way for you to grow in your relationship with Jesus.

Another great way for you to stay connected to your church all throughout the week is through the Life Church app. You can go to wherever you download your apps, go to the app store and download it from there and stay connected with us all throughout the week. Guys, we know and we do all of this because we truly believe that whoever finds God finds life.