In The Small Things

God wants to take that ordinariness of your days and touch it with miracle.


Scripture: John 2:1-10

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? Doing all right? Well, this is your friend, Bob Cook, and I’m back, once again, to share from the Word of God. We’re in the Second Chapter, the Gospel of John, the story of the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee. Last time we got together, I reminded you that the Lord Jesus put His stamp of approval on marriage in the home. God is against the terrible break-up of the home that we see all around us. For every two marriages in the US last year, there was one divorce. Half of all the people that got married got divorced.

Oh, we have to pray that God would send a blessed revival to our nation. God established the home as the basic unit of society. A praying, God-fearing home makes a strong nation. Then I mentioned to you that all God wants is for us to tell Him, just tell Him about the need. Mary said, “They don’t have any.” That’s all she said. Tell God about the need. Tell Him just what it is today. He takes hold. He supplies the need. Then the last time we got together, I said, “Simple obedience is what’s required.” Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it, just do it. Don’t talk about it. For years, my rule has been something that I saw printed and adopted as my own way of life. Don’t talk about a thing, do it. For talking expends emotional and mental energy needlessly. Don’t talk about it, just do it. Whatsoever He saith unto you, obey. Do it.

That’s as far as we got. Now, we go on in this beautiful story. And you find in Verse Six of John Chapter Two, that there’s a reference to six water pots of stone, sitting there after the manner of the purifying the Jews. Evidently, they would fill them up, and then let the water settle, so that sediment would go to the bottom, and they would pour it out. However it was, there they were, and our blessed Lord said, “Now, fill these up.” Which leads me to remind you, beloved, that God often uses things and circumstances that are at hand, in order to accomplish His miraculous purpose. Edom, Moses there in the wilderness, God speaking to him, calling him now to go back to the Egypt from which he had fled defeated, because… I wonder if Moses had red hair. He had a temper, that’s for sure. Because in a moment of temper, he had murdered an Egyptian, had to run away, and now, 40 years later, chastened, humbled, aware of his own shortcomings, he is faced with the challenge of an impossible task, to go back to that same country, and to liberate his people.

He said, “Not me, Lord.” And God said, “What is that in thine hand?” Moses said, “They won’t believe me. There isn’t any proof that God sent me. How will they know that God sent me?” And God says, “What is that in thine hand?” Moses said, “Why, it’s a shepherd’s staff, just a wooden rod that I carry around, a shepherd’s staff.” God said, “Throw it down.” And Moses threw it upon the ground, and as you remember the story, it became a serpent. Moses jumped back. God said, “Reach out and take it up.” He picked it up by the tail, [chuckle] I presume. And it turned back into a shepherd’s staff again.

The God of the miraculous oftentimes starts with what is at hand. Do you wanna put that concept to work in your own circumstances, beloved? Most of us live pretty mundane ordinary lives. There won’t be many of you who rescue someone from drowning today. And none of us, hopefully, will be shot at sunrise. Nothing unusual goes on. Get up, get dressed, get breakfast, see the family off to school and work. And if you’re part of that contingent that goes out, then you go to the office, or the shop, or the schoolroom. And you go on through the day, and you come home, sit down at dinner, and talk about what families talk about at dinner, “Who’s going with who?” And, “What can you see in her?” That sort of a thing. [chuckle] Some television, and some homework, and some conversation after dinner, take two aspirins, and go to bed. There’s your day. Not much different from other days. Can you realize, beloved, that God wants to take that ordinariness of your days and touch it with miracle?

“What is that in thine hand?” Yes, there’s nothing much that’s out of the ordinary, not much exciting. Very few geniuses among us. Most of us are garden variety human vegetables, aren’t we? But God wants to take that ordinary factor and touch it with miracle. Our blessed Lord looked at a crowd that had been with Him for three days, He said, “I don’t wanna send these people away hungry, for they’ll faint by the way.” And of course, the question from the disciples was, “How should we have so many loaves to feed this crowd in the wilderness? Why, we’d have to go in debt for a year’s wages, in order to give each of them a little and that would just irritate them.” Then the Lord Jesus said, “How many loaves have ye?” “Five and a few small fishes.” He said, “That’s enough.” “What is that in thine hand?” God asked of Moses. “How many loaves have ye?” Said Jesus to His disciples. Both occasions were in the face of an overwhelming challenge and need.

Small thought here, God likes to take the impossible situations and work His will through them. I’m talking to somebody who says, “Brother Cook, you just don’t understand. You don’t know what I’m up against. It’s impossible for me to do anything, as I’m tied hand and foot. I can’t get out of this. There’s nothing that can be done. It’s impossible.” That’s what some of you are saying, aren’t you? Well, I’m not decrying the truth, not denying that you are in a difficult situation. I have found that people’s troubles don’t go away by my lecturing, that’s for sure.

Somebody’s feeling bad and crying, you come up and say, “Don’t cry.” That doesn’t make ’em feel any better, probably a little worse, because they think you don’t understand. But I wanna tell you something. God loves to work in the face of the impossible. “For with God,” Jesus said, “For with God, nothing shall be impossible. Believe! All things are possible to Him that believeth.” Jesus said to the distraught father one day, who had brought his boy. You follow this? See, realism says, “Yes, this is impossible humanly.” But faith says, “God is bigger than this situation and He can do something.”

What is your situation? What is there at hand? What is there that can be changed by God’s touch? Many years ago, I came across a little book, it was maybe a quarter of an inch thick, not much more, called “The Technique for Producing Ideas.” And it said that you ought to sit down with a pack of 3 x 5 index cards, and write down all that you possibly can about the subject you’re researching. Put down on separate cards separate thoughts, everything that you can about the subject that you are researching. And then, said this author, “Shuffle those cards, rearrange them.” We’ll say ‘rearrange,’ because some of you are tenderly reared, huh? [chuckle] Rearrange those cards. And in the different relationship of thoughts, you’ll come across new ideas.

The ordinary, rearranged in the light of God’s purpose, can mean so very much, by way of new horizon. Incidentally, the rest of that book dealt with the fact that, after you’ve rearranged all of the items on those cards, then you think about all of it as hard as you can, until your mind is weary. The author said, “If you’re not willing to do this, lay it all aside, because it won’t work. But if you’re willing to think very hard about all of this, go over it, and over it, and over it, and think about it, until your mind is weary.” “Then,” said he, “Lay it aside and just forget it.” He said, “A new idea will come to you at some unexpected time, as a result of having put all of that material back into your unconscious mind, the computer portion of your mind.” A new idea will surface, whether it’s while you’re shaving, or driving, or right in the middle of a busy day, and you will have created a new idea out of old relationships. Now, that’s what that little book said so long ago.

And of course, there was nothing religious about that, but you add then, the factor that you and I possess in our lives, the indwelling Holy Spirit, who comes to dwell in the life of a believer, when you trust the Lord Jesus Christ, as your Lord and Savior. You apply that process of thinking and let’s add praying over a situation. Take all of the elements of it, and write them out, and think about them, and ponder them, and pray over them. I can guarantee you that God will bring His miracle element out of the ordinary. Six water pots, nothing glamorous, standing right there. Jesus uses what is at hand to do His work. Good thought, isn’t it? Then we come to Verse Seven, where our Lord said, “Fill the water pots with water.” Five words there in English. I don’t know what it was in Greek. I didn’t look it up. Short command, “Fill the water pots with water.” “They filled ’em up to the brim,” it said, complete obedience. “Simple… ” Now, here’s something to latch onto. “Simple commands, when they are obeyed, can lead to miracle.”

Simple commands. You don’t have to make your faith a complex, mysterious thing. Some people are mystics by nature. But you don’t have to be a born mystic to deal with God. God is very practical. God is the God of daily bread. “Give us, this day, our daily bread.” God is the God, who knows when you’ve gotten out of line. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, our trespasses.” God is the God, who knows when you’re tempted. You don’t have to put on. You don’t have to assume that you have to look a certain way to get by with God. God knows when you’re tempted. “Lead us not into temptation.” God is the God, who can deliver you. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation,” it says elsewhere in God’s word. “Practical, simple commands, once obeyed lead to miracle.” I’ll take that up with you the next time we get together.

Father God, make us obedient today in practical, little, ordinary things, so that you can do the miracle in Jesus’ name, Amen. ‘Til I meet you, once again, by way of radio, Walk With the King today and be a blessing.



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