Dr R.T. Kendall - A Strange Miracle

we're looking forward to our tea kennel ministering very shortly this is his reading 2nd Kings chapter 6 verse 1 the company of the prophets said to Elisha look the place where we meet with you is too small for us let us go to the Jordan where each of us can get a pole and let us build a place there for us to meet and he said go then one of them said won't you please come with your servants I will Elisha replied and he went with them and they went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees as one of them was cutting down a tree the iron axe head fell into the water oh no my lord he cried out it was borrowed and the man of God asked where did it fall when he showed him the place Elijah's cut a stick and threw it there and made the iron float lifted out he said then the man reached out his hand and took it a strange miracle shows how God cares about the least important things in our lives and cares about every aspect of our lives brief word of Prayer Heavenly Father I pray now for the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus by your spirit to rest upon every mind in this place in order that their perception of what I say will be heard as you intend cleanse my tongue that I will be your transparent instrument to say everything that needs to be said nothing that doesn't need to be said enabled me to be very very clear very very simple it may this be a word that encourages every person here and a word that brings great honor and glory to your name I pray in Jesus name Amen in the passage that Gabriel is just read we see one of the strangest if not funniest most comical miracles in all Holy Writ whatever is the meaning of an act head floating in water when you compare this to when God used Elisha to heal an Amon naming the leper that was a spectacular miracle of healing one of the most extraordinary in the Bible and he'll follow here he makes an axe head iron float on water whatever is the point so compared to the healing of naman this is so ridiculous but I can come right to the answer God cares about every aspect of our lives and in particular he cares about when you and I are embarrassed would you think God cares about when you're embarrassed but he does and it's so thrilling no proverbs 3 6 says in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths I suppose if we could eavesdrop on one another's prayers it would embarrass the person to admit you pray about such a thing but I want you to think for a moment of those times in your lives the smallest thing you prayed about and if someone heard that you prayed about that they would say how dare you like if you lose your keys but wait a minute that could be a big thing huge when you rushing and you can't find your keys and you pray god help me or you know a lot of people make fun of this you're looking for a parking place and you ask God to give you a parking place and the critics come out and say with all the trouble in the world and people going to hell and you're praying for a parking place but we've all done this and you see here's what happened this man who's a student at this school of the prophets they're going to expand that they have to move and they're cutting down trees and one of those men as he's cutting down the tree the axe head flies off and immediately said oh dear it was borrowed and it drops into the Jordan River could've been too far where the tree was and there is and he is so embarrassed by the way do you know the expression flying off the handle we ever flown off the handle well flying off the handle I've done that too in fact I'll tell you something else you won't believe I've actually chopped wood and had the ax handle fly off I can do it other ways too when you lose your temper expression that I looked up on Google that came out first in 1832 but Brits use it to flying off the handle we've all done that well now here's the thing it shows that God would take the time because of a man who is embarrassed he said oh please it was borrowed had it been his only but forgotten about it it was borrowed and the whole story is about this and it goes to show how God cares about the least things in fact details that you will later forget and God doesn't want you to forget let me give an example how God uses something that you may think is so unimportant the book of Acts I think you would agree that one of the main parts is act 2 verses 1 2 3 4 where it is described the Holy Spirit comes down on the day of Pentecost now that's pretty important but he only takes this 4 verse to four verses to describe it acts two one two three four you get to the 27th chapter of Acts and I read it every year because in my Bible reading plan it takes me through the New Testament twice and when we get to the 27th chapter of Acts I think oh dear do I have to read this it is so boring it's about Paul stating for Rome for example on the fourteenth night we were still driven across the Adriatic Sea when about midnight the sailors test they were approaching land they took soundings and found that the water was 120 feet deep I think who cares and but then I realized Paul speaks up he says last night an angel of God who saw a man whose I serve said don't worry you're going to make it now here's the thing Acts who writes the book of Acts could have covered this whole chapter in one verse he could have just said with great difficulty on our way to Rome we stopped at Malta and we would be fine with that but why does he go into all of this detail I can tell you if you'd been there that would have mattered a lot and to know that God cares about that or here's another example take the book of Romans I think we would all agree that Romans is Paul's most important book his longest book long statement of the gospel chapter 1 revelation of God chapter 2 God's judgment chapters 3 and 4 justification by faith chapter 5 atonement big themes chapter 6 a man in Christ chapter 7 relation to the law chapter 8 Paul's doctrine of the Spirit chapter 9 predestination chapter 10 getting the gospel to every creature chapter 11 God's relationship to the Jews in Israel and he get one and on what do you suppose you get in chapter 16 knowing that the whole book of Romans is inspired do you realize what you get in chapter 16 it's Paul thing tell everybody hello for me now he could just say greet all my friends but listen to this he says greet priscilla and aquila my dear friend epinet just greet married a dronicus and Junius he keeps going Griet ruthless rufus my grandpa Kendall was named ruthless and I think who cares but then when I get to heaven I was there so your Rufus I read about you every year twice and you know can you imagine how ruthless would feel to know that in the great book of Romans God mentioned him you'd be glad if your name was mentioned God cares about our self-esteem Paul knows this and he wants to be remembered this is a thing God cares about our self-esteem and about when we are embarrassed and so we have here this strange miracle I would define a miracle as an extraordinary event that is positive but which is beyond what is natural or proved scientifically now when I think of science we all know that this week Stephen Hawking slipped into eternity arguably the greatest mind ever certainly since Einstein and there would be those who think well he is so intelligent I would believe him and he didn't believe in God and therefore you would not believe in God because Stephen Hawking did not believe in God and he was still smart can I tell you something that the newspapers won't tell you about Stephen Hawking that Paul does he says in Romans 1:19 since what may be known about God is plain to them this is Paul he knows what's on everybody's heart atheism is a choice we choose to be atheists because Paul says since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from has been made so that men are without excuse intelligent and brilliant though this man may be he is now he tells it was his ambition to show the purpose of the universe imagine trying to do that without God he has his work cut out for him well he did not succeed and the truth is one choose this to be an atheist because this is what is what people want to believe tell you another thing you may not know this sir Julian Huxley was one of the first to get on the bandwagon and support Darwinian evolution and he actually made this statement I quote the reason we leaped at Darwin is because the idea of God interfered with our sexual mores this is one of the reasons people want to believe there's no God they choose to believe it well if you were to tell them about this miracle they would have all the more reason to laugh their heads off who cares about an X head floating but it's so interesting to me that the great God of the universe and who's given us the Epistle to the Romans Paul the theologian at the end takes the time to talk about different people wanting to say hello to them and that is what we have in this account now what makes it funny and strange no one's health is at stake no one's getting healed there's no one's financial security at risk no one's reputation is at stake only the embarrassed man we won't even know his name till we get to heaven who was one of the thoughts studying under he was embarrassed because the axe head flew off went into the water as I say couldn't be very far because the tree was right next to it close enough that when a life just has to get me a stick of wood he cuts the stick of wood tell me where tell me where you lost it well right over there so Elijah throws a stick of wood and just like that here comes the axe that floating on water now the thing is this man could have got it himself you see it wasn't a piece of plastic that would float down the Jordan River all the way to the Dead Sea it fell right there all he had to do is get his feet wet Wade and shuffle his feet around and he would find it but because Elijah was around and he panics tis old my lord it was it was it was borrowed Elijah could have made fun of him they could have said get over it but no he said where did you lose it now the point is God cared about that and the things that God can do when you know he steps in there are degrees of miracles that they're what we call creative miracles a blind being healed deaf healed when a person's raised from the dead were an outstretched arm God can do that or he could just use nature take a good rest you'll feel better or you can use what we call a miracle drug and you start feeling better but in this case we have a situation where only God could do that only God can make this happen but then you know there are things in our lives and we've all known about them that convinced how real God is and if you were to try to convince somebody else they would laugh you to scorn Oh I never will forget one afternoon I was getting ready to go to Wales and preach that night and I had it all planned instead of taking the underground you go down this thing James Park Circle Line takes the longer I just well off at 4:30 I'll get a taxi I'll be at Paddington at quarter to five it's when the train leaves and then I get the taxi and all of a sudden that traffic stops and I want you to know ten minutes later we hadn't got a hundred yards away and I am panic I say to the taxi driver is this the fastest you go he said mate you can get out if you want get another taxi I just kept quiet the rest of the way and just started to pray and then when we get to Buckingham Palace we're now 15 minutes away and the rate we're going we're not gonna get there of twenty past five when we get to Park Lane around Hyde Park Corner it's five minutes to five no way can we get to Paddington when we get to heaven I'm going to ask for a video replay and watch the angel come down and divide the traffic and we just kept going and I want you to know got - Paddington at 15 seconds before five o'clock I jumped on the train and before I sat down it was moving that was God you see God he's never too late he's never too early always just on time and I just remembered another occasion it was a Saturday afternoon it was the March 24th that was the date and on Saturdays when we're at Western State Chapel is something that we just did I love curry Indian food is my favorite there's no number two well there might be a number two but it would be a for a second and still Saturday knives I was getting ready to go to the phone and order chicken tikka masala brinjal bajji onion bhaji Rogan gosh bendy bhaji Bombay aloo pillar iced mango chutney does that make you hungry want to get out here and our calendar which is right next to the phone is one of those that you turn it every month you got a new month and squares 30 squares and the date for each one and for some reason for some reason I just looked down today's March 24th what March 24th I looked on there 4 p.m. must leave for Oxford my secretary usually lets me know don't forget you've got a preaching appointment she didn't he's 4 o'clock I said to Louise I gotta go what do you mean I said I have to go now there wasn't even time to change clothes I had to go down and get in the car and drive to Oxford because that was having a meal with the president of IQ he's expect me at 5 o'clock got it at 5 to 5 he couldn't have known that almost didn't go at all and had to speak to 200 students that night it would have been a tragedy going too far but so embarrassing if I forgot and I just happened to look at March 24th now tell ya here's another article people not article a miracle that people if they heard it would find it not possible but the man who told me he wasn't making it up the man of God his name is Terry acryl he was retired man with the KitKat's that's actually he was a superintendent in the marketing of KitKat's and he was retired and in his retirement God gave him an unusual gift his story one Friday they were praying at st. Michael belfry and they began to notice an aroma came into the room and they all smelled it like roses and they looked at each other do you smell that yes yes and Terry said I smelled it then I looked at my hands he said soaking wet with oil and he said the one he said I didn't wash my hands for three days but then after he finally washed his hands it would come on him from time to time and he would never know what would make the oil come on and he couldn't make it happen and I happened to get to medium in Scotland years ago and God gave me favor with him and we had a great relationship and he Kember calling him one morning he called me instead of got a word for your daughter Melissa it was so right and it was still accurate and he told me many stories and one of them was that where they began to go to a church in York a different one than the one I mentioned for some reason the vicar was not happy for Terry to be there and he thought well God told me to go there and then he's sitting in the service and the Lord says time to go when now now he said I turned to my wife and says God's this for us to leave well after the service will know not to come back here no we got to go they had to get up in the middle of the service walked out to walk to their car five minutes the way around the corner and when they walked out there was their car right at their doorstep figure that out some won't believe that I believe it God does things like that and miracles that which only God can do know what I want us to see in this passage first a strategic of God imagine the privilege of having Elijah around and you know people like him don't show up every day a strategic person we use the phrase sovereign vessel what's that well it's one raised up by God with a specific ministry he'll be known for his gifting courage the timing and he's the man of God sovereign vessel Billy Graham Franklin Graham Colin died dr. Martin lloyd-jones unusual man when you have people like that you think what a privilege and these men had Elijah but now they're gonna cut trees and I suppose the having conversation do you want to ask him and you ask him well shall I ask him because they didn't know whether the great Elijah would hang around for them to do this but they just said to him any chance that you would come with us he said sure sure he might have said you don't expect me to waste my time while you're cutting trees but what an honor what a privilege and so they would not always have elijah and they've got this story let me tell you right now if you get next to a true man of God be willing to and he's willing to spend time with you do you know when I was that Westminster Chapel the first weekend I'm there I'm so intimidated by this invitation I didn't try to get it I didn't expect it and the next thing I know they voted me in and dr. Martin lloyd-jones was still alive in fact he really is the one that made it happen but I said doctor I'm working on this sermon and he can't give me a little help with it this week you know what he said to me I'm at your service as long as you want there and here I was invited to sit at the feet of arguably the greatest preacher ever certainly in a hundred years and he's given me his time I was in and out of his house but two hours a week just going over all the points of my sermon and having him criticize it and say that's good leave that out all that was so wonderful and so when we have a strategic man of God or a woman of God that God raises them up be so thankful but the second thing I want us to see the secret mystery of God it comes out in this story and I'm referring now to accidents so they went to the Jordan began to cut down trees one of them was cutting down a tree the iron axe head fell into the water oh my lord he cried out it was borrowed Exodus they're going to happen they are going to happen and you began to ask Lord why did you let this happen why did my on my way to make the Train did you had this happen and I missed the Train why did I lose my keys why when I'm got to go to the airport and I can't find my passport why does he permit them does he caused him here's something I want you to remember the difference between what God causes and what he permits is holy ground I'll explain one day Moses was in the Sinai desert in Egypt I have been in that desert in the summer when the Fahrenheit temperature was 122 you cannot imagine how hot that is and you can imagine that if if something got on fire a little bush it could happen so quickly because of the heat and one day Moses looking at a bush that's on fire he probably thought what I was thinking bush fires before but he looked again he's a nut bush been burning now for several minutes and after a while the bush still on fire isn't consumed by are still going the bush is there he says I'm gonna see what this is I'm gonna get up close and figure it out and all of a sudden he hears a voice Moses Moses stop don't come any closer take off your shoes the ground on which you're standing is holy ground no what we learn from that among other things when you try to figure out something and you want to get to the bottom of it God's this stop don't come any closer don't try to figure it out you held that we all have our questions the big one here's the big one the difference between what is predestined and what is permitted holy ground take off your shoes don't try to figure out God and so that's what we learn accidents they're going to happen and so why did this prophetic man sitting at the feet of Elijah lose his friends axe head and if we know this it caused panic and it goes to show that having Elijah around doesn't keep accidents from happening you know sometimes you think oh I'm with man of God you're on a flight and you hear that somebody famous is on the plane and they're Christians that well this flights going to make it fine because they're on the plane don't count on that you know President Lyndon Johnson in the height the Vietnam War always wanted Billy Graham to come and just stay at the White House for a day he thought having Billy Graham there is gonna solve a problem it didn't Billy went out of courtesy oh remember a few years ago when I was gonna take Paul Kane fishing now if you don't know Paul Kane is the nearest you get to a modern Elijah the stories that can be told extraordinary and so I'm taking Paul Kane fishing Ethel well this will be fun we're gonna get all kinds of fish what a day we didn't catch any fish and motor broke down and we are at sea for two hours before somebody tows us in so much for having a great man of God to keep accidents from happening they are going to happen and so we have this right before their eyes is this accident and the man panicked and I said oh it was borrowed but here's what we learned and this is so sweet God cares about our extreme anxiety he notices it and this is an example and he uses Elijah the same Elijah that healed namin now is going to show something that you might not have thought about and now Elijah is going to show such concern for this unknown prophet that we would never hear about is the here's the thing God uses extreme anxiety to get our attention take when you are weeping and you're crying and you're distraught and I just say God why it happened to a man building him of hezekiah he was told your time is up and he goes to God and is crying and then I saw the Prophet comes and says I've heard your voice I have seen your tears the first time the word tears appears in holy scripture 2 kings 20 verse 5 lets you know tears get God's attention and maybe no one else is watching and nobody else noticed this you but God sees your tears well the lost acts had brought great fear of embarrassment and here's what I learned from this God cares when we're embarrassed and he doesn't want us to be embarrassed and so this person studying under Elijah feared the embarrassment of having to explain to the owner and God stepped in you know Jesus told us how to keep from being embarrassed sometimes remember the parable Luke 14 here's the man goes to this banquet and he takes himself a bit seriously and says well I need to get a seat and I'm sure I'll be sitting at the top table there he goes and helps himself and sits down and then jesus said be careful about doing that because the host might say oh sorry about this sir but your seat has been reserved for somebody else you would have to sit over here and embarrassed in front of everybody you're going to see that you have to sit someplace else now jesus said here's the advice to keep from being embarrassed when you're invited to a banquet just take the lowest seat nobody will notice and then if you're invited to come up higher they'll all see it this is why he said the principle of letting god exalt you letting God do it you don't have to talk about yourself who you know how many famous people you know let god exalt you in his time but I will say this there is one kind of embarrassment where God says you need to get over that and that is when you're taking a stand for the gospel at Westminster Chapel we started our pilot light ministry and I led a group of going out to the streets giving out tracts now as far as I know no previous minister I was the 12th in in their history I'm pretty sure that previous ministers didn't get out on the streets and give out tracts but God said that I had to and it was so embarrassing because you know we don't like it when people and just something on the street where you want to get going now I was having to do that and I could just hear God's thing get over it and oh I'll tell you another kind of embarrassment that God will tell you just to get over it do you know the least wanted gift of the Spirit is the gift of tongues and it's the only gift that challenges your pride and people will say they are against the gifts to the spirit you tell you now if if there were not the gift of tongues in those 12 gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12 nobody would be against them who me against the healing or prophecy or miracles ah that one in there speaking in tongues that gives people an excuse not to have them all it's all because of pride Jackie Paul and you told me the first time she spoke in tongues she said I was embarrassed I didn't feel anything just embarrassing I know exactly what she means so there is the kind of embarrassment where God just says get over it but in this case he was concerned about how this man felt and I want to come now to the third thing this strange miracle of God and when this man who we don't know there's all it was it was borrowed Elisha could have said get over it or he could have said you dummy go on in the water and get it yourself he could have said that because the water wasn't that deep that's proved it wasn't far the very fact that he could lift it up just it was right there but instead of making him feel bad and also to save him from getting embarrassed Elisha shows something and I have thought about this these 100 people studying under Elisha whatever were they learning now we've got a school here I bi o L Gabriel is the principal by the way what do you teach them you don't teach them to do miracles do you as if miracle is some kind of magic I don't honestly I've thought about this whatever were they learning what could elijah could he show them some trick he'll buy for base those are sticking up water and iron your stuff comes up and it starts floating this is some trick you know elijah had a success there it was the life shot elijah has no success to these 100 prophets we don't know what they were learning they weren't learning to do miracles elijah could say now you do it because i've been teaching it no i don't know that you can teach that sort of thing because only god can turn the water into wine only God can make this happen but what were they getting I'll tell you a side of Elijah you might not have known Elijah asked the man a question where did it fall why is he going to ask that question he's getting a chance to show that God cares about his being embarrassed God cares about our self-esteem it was necessary that he asked this question he's showing how much God cares about small things I want to share with you just before I closed a little acrostic that I came up with years ago that if you can remember it and if I can remember because I forget I came up with it and I forget you ask before I speak will this meet another person's need think about that for the rest of the day before you open your mouth you're getting ready to say something asked one question is it necessary is it necessary do you have to say it if you don't have to don't if I'm totally candid with you I would say virtually a hundred percent of the times I said something I regretted I didn't have to say it at all I didn't have to say it you asked is it necessary you see James in James chapter 3 talks about the tongue which no man contained it's what he says the tongue is a spark if the fire and one word one unguarded comment will cause a forest fire ask is it necessary and if it's not necessary don't speak but now using this little acrostic in E does it emancipate in other words does it set free what you want to say will make a person be free where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty you should know the truth the truth shall set you free what Jesus did he set people free ask is what I'm about to say is it necessary will emancipate and third does it energize there are two kinds of people did you know this there are two kinds of people in the world there are drainers and energizes which do you think you are are you a drainer you know what a drainer is you see them coming you say oh dear v/o you look the other way you hope they don't see you a drainer you talk to them ten minutes you're just exhausted you talk to them an hour you need a psychiatrist but then there are the Energizer's you look for them and all look I'd love to talk to you because you're gonna feel better they just have that ability ask before you speak is it necessary does it emancipate will it energize and forth does it dignify does it dignify make them feel important Dale Carnegie said the greatest urge of any human being is the desire to feel important that's the way we're wired and this is why Dale Carnegie would talk about let the other person save face and so Elijah instead of saying you lazy idiot go in there and get it yourself he just says where did you lose it it was the necessary question to start well it was right over here he gets a piece of wood it carves it and throws it over there and the iron floats that's what God does Elijah decided to get involved and it met the man save face that's the way God is you know we've all got skeletons in the cupboard and God isn't wanting to yank the skeleton out embarrasses before everybody he protects our self-esteem well asked that question does it energize does it dignify and so Elijah says well you see if folding just lifted out the man did and the crisis was over strange miracle far more important than you may have realized we're all interested in miracles who wouldn't be and we'd like to see them years ago I was driving dr. Karl fh henry toward Westminster Chapel he was regarded in the 20th century's the greatest theologian in America and to earned doctorates and he with Billy Graham started a great magazine called Christianity today he was an icon and God for some reason gave me favor with him and and we were driving around Buckingham Palace I would remember this that I'll not ask him a question and remember his answer I said Carl missed esteemed theologian now in his late 70s I said if you could live your life over again what would you do different he didn't answer I'd look to see if he heard me but tears filled his eyes and he said I would remember that only God can turn the water into wine it was an implicit admission that over the years maybe try to make this happen or make this happen you realized only God can do some things and you let God do it well we all want to see miracles but we're living in the day of small things you see peddle taste something Paul Cain taught Luiza me he used to say this again and again thank God for the least thing the smallest thing you see the cynics say unless he's walking on water I don't want to hear about it no God can do little things and thank God for the small things you see he cares about how we feel and understands when we make mistakes and and buys away I know what it is to fly off the handle too often but I can also tell he tell you something I've stained the iron float after flying off the handle because God has a way of making all things work together for good or and sometimes the way the iron floats this when I apologized for what I just said and the iron will float all things work together for good so I closed with one of the old hymns of Fanny Crosby all the way my Saviour leads me what have I to ask beside can I doubt his tender mercies who through life has been my god heavenly peace divinest comfort here by faith in him to dwell for I know whatever before me Jesus do with all things well for I know whatever before me Jesus do what all things [Music]

Channel: Kensington Temple

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Length: 48min 3sec (2883 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 19 2018