living for today with an eye for tomorrow this is the voice of vision broadcast Now, here's our teacher, Pastor J.D. Hatfield. Well, hello there, friends. Once again, this is Pastor J.D. Hatfield of the Riverside Christian Fellowship in Hernando, Florida. As always, as we say every day, because it's true, you can find us on the web at voiceofvision.org. Now today, We are gonna entitle our message, Miracles and Means. Miracles and Means, M-E-A-N-S, means, means to have miracles. Well, let's get into this and we'll talk about it. Let's turn to Luke chapter eight. I'm gonna start in Luke eight at verse 49. And it says this, while he was yet speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, your daughter is dead, do not trouble the teacher anymore. But Jesus on hearing this answered him, do not fear, only believe and she will be well. And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and James and John and the father and mother of the child. And all were weeping and mourning for her. But he said, do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But taking her by the hand, he called, saying, child, arise. And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened. And our key verse that we want to focus on is verse 55. The NIV reads this way. Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. So Jesus raised her. Jairus's daughter from the dead and he raised people from the dead and you know the body without the spirit is death and dead it said the spirit returned and that's James 2 26 the body without the spirit is dead but Jesus is showing here that he's the giver of life he spoke to her as if she was alive because As Romans 4.17 says, God quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were. He calls people into the kingdom of God who were previously not there and he raised people from the dead in his earthly ministry to show that he had that sort of power. But I want us to focus on something a little narrower today, not really the whole focus of miracles and Jesus, whole life and all that, but I want you to notice again that she was given meat to eat. She'd just been raised from the dead, but that didn't make her some supernatural thing. Like in John 11, Lazarus was raised from the dead, but he did die again. Jesus was the firstborn from the dead, meaning that he was not reincarnated or not resuscitated, as it were. He was resurrected not to die again. These things that Jesus was doing was just showing his power, and although Jesus performed in the supernatural realm, that did not mean that natural means were not used as well. She was brought back to life, but her life was not now supernaturally different. She was just brought back to life. It'd have to be lived as it was before she died. And of course, she had been dead for a while, so she hadn't eaten for a long time, and she needed food. Let's turn to 1 Kings 18 real quick. I wanna show you another example. Just want you to think about this, because I'm gonna make some important points here. 1 Kings 18 and verse 45 says, in a little while, the heavens grew back with clouds and wind. And remember, this is Elijah telling Ahab that the rain was coming, that the season of famine and drought was over, and it says, Ahab, okay, says the clouds and wind and there was a great rain and Ahab rode and went to Jezreel and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel. So Elijah was given super speed by the hand of the Lord. Now, did he always have that? No. He probably needed a drink of water afterwards. I'm not trying to be facetious here, friends. I'm trying to say that God can do miracle things that doesn't make your responsibilities in the regular realm of life any different. Applying this to our lives is very, very important. I mean, for example, If you've received some healing or deliverance, say, from cancer that was caused by smoking, okay? You know, you go to a meeting and God does touch you. See, I'm not against those things, friends. I think a lot of times we manufacture those or just get our adrenaline up, and it's not really real. We call something that's a miracle, that's just really... We want it so bad, but God is not giving it at the moment, or we think it is, and boy, we... can get really messed up and I could go on and on and on about that, but let's say you did go to a meeting and God did take away the cancer that had been caused by smoking. Well, it seems obvious. You can't just go back to your habit and expect to remain unhurt, right? You need the desire to be taken away as well, or if it's not, you need to make it happen, you know? You can't just go back to your old habit and expect to remain unhurt. See, this is what happens in church a lot of times, and I've been guilty of it, and perhaps you have been too. I've known many that we've counseled or ministered to or talked to or have come to us and other pastors and other people and lots of everybody would know this, I imagine, that sometimes people want you to get them out of a situation, but they only want you to take them up out of that pit. only so that they can try it again the same old way they've always done it. So you get them up out of that pit, you do whatever you can, pad the ropes, pull them up, and help them on their way, and they get the shovel and just start digging again. You wanna know the secret to pits, my friend? Stop digging. Stop digging. And we keep going to meetings. Lord, help me be released from this thing. Get me rid of the smoking or pornography or cheating on my wife. Get me rid of these things. And we seem to feel a touch from the Lord, but friends, it's not your decision to start. It's your determination to stay that matters. And the truth is, is that so often we don't realize what Titus 2 tells us, that grace is a teacher. It teaches us to say no to the form of life and yes to the life that God would have us. You see, we have this grace there, but we have to step into it. Grace is not opposed to effort, friend. It's opposed to merit. We're not meriting these things, but God gives us prick in our heart and some conviction and compunction and say we go forward at a meeting or something and we really meant it and we repent we can't just go outside and think well I'll never have the desire again we got to get rid of those cigarettes we got to take a different route and not go by that place that we used to do that thing we used to do we need to understand miracles and and means We can't just go back to our old habits and expect to remain hurt. We can't expect God or someone as an instrument, God, lifting us out of that pit to keep us from using the shovel. We have to do that ourselves. We have to apply the means in the grace to have the means of grace work for us. A supernatural intervention does not negate all the laws of physics from the point on. You know, you're falling down from a building, you say, Lord save me, and a big gust of wind comes and you land safely on your feet. You don't then start jumping off buildings. I mean, that might sound like a ridiculous thing to you, but how often, I mean, you can apply that, right? Do I have to go on? How often do people do that? Do you see them do it? Do you do it? You know, we could say miracles, and I think that even in this particular broadcast that we're doing right now, people might misconstrue what I mean by that, but we could say that it's God moving in an overtly providential way. I believe God still heals today. I believe much of what we see in the charismatic world calling it healing is not true. It's just our adrenaline, and then you see these big crusades, and people get healed supposedly, and then they die. of the same disease a week later type of thing. And sometimes God does move in his providence to heal people and deliver people immediately. Sometimes it takes a little while and sometimes it's for a very specific thing in a very specific time. You get a second chance, another choice, but not a permanent vacation from responsibility. Again, that's what this text is pointing to. The girl died. I don't know why she had died. Let's say it wasn't even from a disease, but she had become malnourished. Would she then, after coming back to life, become nourished immediately, or would you have to change her diet? You see what I mean, friends? You were out drunk driving and you got an accident right before you died and said, God save me and he saves you. Do then you go and drink some more on the way home and drive again? Again, you might get a second chance, but not a permanent vacation from responsibility. It's just like we tell people that say, well, I know God loves me because, you know, he saved me. There was angels all around me. Well, I say, folks, that's common grace. That saved your life. Now, how about saving grace, which saves your soul? Consider that the Israelites still had to walk across the Red Sea. You know, God parted the Red Sea, but they still had to go across. They still had to look at the brazen serpent. Remember? Jesus talks about that in John chapter 3. Moses made the serpent and put it up on a pole and they had to look at him. They had to look at it. Otherwise, they would have died. It's not hard to imagine that some saw that provision as foolishness and died as a result of not obeying God. Died from the poison. Died from the snakes. Hmm. Just like we have to look at Jesus. We can't say, yeah, I know Jesus did it without making it personal to ourselves. Similarly, we must cooperate with God and not fall back into our old ways and make the grace of God of none effect. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. That is true. But let us not run back to the jail cell or be so hasty to place the shackles back on our feet. It's like we've been set free from bondage and then we, you know, decide in the morning, well, I think all those look good on me, like a little ankle bracelet, hello? When we're set free from bondage, we're only setting ourselves up for more problems if we do not turn to something else. How terribly often have we heard or known of someone or been someone that has overcome an addiction only to pick it back up again and worse than before or trade it for some other thing. We stop the drugs and we get on the drink. We stop the drink and we get on the whatever it is. That's why we should listen to Passages like 2 Peter 2, 20-22, you know, the dog returns to its vomit. We need to move forward. And you know, when Jesus said that you drive one demon out, but if you don't replace it with godly things, seven more take its place. Again, that passage in 2 Peter 20-22 talks about the passage in Proverbs 26, 11 that says the dog returns to its vomit again. You've gotta learn a new way. You need new food. must feed on Christ and not just be free from Satan. Did you hear me? Not just get set free from bondage, but actually in the, you know, living in freedom. We need to be released from the enemy's power, for sure. But we can't be a dry place. That is, we gotta stay wet with the overflow of the Spirit in our lives. John 7, 37-39, we need to hunger and thirst for righteousness, as he said of the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5. Then we'll be filled. We need to be filled with God or we're gonna be filled with foolishness. That's why we must trade our old habits for newer, godly ones. We must spend our time not idle, but engaging in spiritual disciplines such as Bible study and prayer and have an accountability factor in our lives to assure that we don't slide back into sin. This is one reason we need to be amongst other people of like precious faith in church. It's a powerful reason to understand why we need to be plugged in to a local body of believers. You see, God often shows his providential provision through conventional channels. Maybe not an overt thing where Jesus comes and raises them from the dead. Jesus is in heaven, folks. But through the Holy Spirit, maybe something would happen like that. But again, his providential provision happens mostly through conventional channels. His supernatural power through natural means. You can receive a miracle today. Look to God in his word and let him speak to you. We're going to speak to you next time on the Voice of Vision broadcast. That's all we have for today. We'll see you next time. This is Pastor J.D. Hatfield. God bless you. Oh yes, I'm glad to know my life is here with Jesus.