Sermon Central
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What Is It That God Can't Do For You
Contributed by Terry Owens on Apr 25, 2001 (message contributor)
Summary: When we think small we limit God, there’s nothing He can’t do for you. Open the possiblities with this message.
Gen 18:14
Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. KJV
Num 11:23
And the LORD said unto Moses, Is the LORD’s hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not. KJV
I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. KJV
Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? KJV
For with God nothing shall be impossible. KJV
And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. KJV
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
I ask you again this morning, what is it that God can’t do for you? We see from the Old Testament to the New Testament that God is capable of doing any thing that God wants to do. Nothing is impossible!
If nothing is impossible to God, then we must ask ourselves a question, why do we panic, and why do we worry when bad things seem to happen. If God really is able to do anything, if nothing is truly impossible, then what’s wrong? The problem doesn’t lie with God. It’s not because He can’t do it. It’s because we don’t place ourselves in a position to receive from Him.
Why do we throw our belief in God out the window as soon as problems come our way? Why do we in a moments notice get so frustrated and so discouraged when problems come, if God is truly able to do anything?
Let me assure you of something, the problem doesn’t lie in God’s ability to meet your needs. The answer is lies in our ability to trust God in everything we face.
So many times we are guilty of shutting down God’s ability to work in our life.
I want us to look at this morning some of the hindrances in our lives that keeps us from receiving what we need from the Lord. As we do this, then we’re going to see what needs to be in place for us to be on the receiving end of God’s blessings.
First you need to realize that we can tie the hands of God – I want you to see this morning a couple of ways that you can tie the hands of God.
First, we tie the hands of God when we don’t operate by faith.
Matthew 13:58 says this of Jesus … “And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”
Heb 11:6 “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
There’s two powerful things that come out of these verses. First, unbelief limits God’s ability to do mighty works and second, we can’t even begin to please God or receive anything from Him without faith.
What causes us not to operate in faith? People like to speculate, but if you want to get down to the root cause of things, you need to go to the Word of God and see what it says. So let’s see what the Word says:
Turn to Matt 22:29 in the verses previous to this one, the Pharisees are having a talk with Jesus and they are trying to trap Him in His answers. But in the 29th verse Jesus lays a very important spiritual principal out, look at what He says… “Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”
This addresses the very core of our lack of faith. There’s a difference in knowing what the scriptures say and knowing the scriptures.
For example, I can read a book on a famous person, I could recite to you all the major achievements of that person’s life, all their failures and if you didn’t know much about me, you might think that the person I was talking about was a friend of mine. The truth is, I just know about them. I really don’t know them.
There’s a lot of that going on in the body of Christ. People know about the scriptures, I hear it when I counsel people, they’ll tell me, I know that’s what the scriptures say, but!
What they’re telling me is when it comes to knowing the truth of the scriptures and experiencing them for their selves, they’re clueless.
The question you need to ask yourself this morning, which person side of the fence am I on? If you want to operate in faith, you must go from the Logos word (the written word) to the Rhema word (the living word).
