We know God works miracles when we come to impossible situations.

How do we determine when a situation is impossible?

We have all heard the sermons where we write the opposition on a card and give it to God.

But there are 2 items: opposition and our strength.

We can either measure “impossible” by how big our enemy is or how weak we are.

“I can’t lift my coffee cup” doesn’t sound like an impossible situation.

“I don’t have arms, so I can’t lift a coffee cup” IS an impossible situation. Because of our weakness.

Israelites running from Pharaoh's army, Elija vs the 350 prophets of Baal, David vs the giant Goliath, Gideon vs Midianites (as numerous as sand on the sea shore)

These all look like impossible situations because of how big the enemy is. This is the typical sermon.

In these impossible situations, we assume God will come and supercharge us with supernatural strength so that we can overcome the enemy and see His power on display.

But look at this “impossible situation”

Matthew 19:23 20

“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

This impossible situation is lacking an antagonist.

There is no giant. No army. No prophets of Baal to overcome.

There is only a rich man that has kept the commandments - a seemingly strong vessel.

The IMPOSSIBLEness of this is that the rich man CAN LEAN ON HIS OWN STRENGTH!!!

Which of these is of greater concern for God coming and rescuing us?

Our perception of the enemy's strength?

Our perception of our own strength?

Yes, we do need faith in the face of our enemies “Our God is bigger!” - we all have that down.

But, more importantly, we need to come to a point where we realize and willingly admit our own weakness, THEN we cry out for a savior.

You don’t need a savior if you can possibly maybe save yourself.

A trial may begin with us seeing how big the enemy is, or how big the problem is…

But, I THINK, the most important step is surrendering our ‘strengths’ completely, and crying out for a savior to save us.

We need to come to this conclusion:

“I know God will come through… and I know the miracle will NOT be because of me.”

Lets look at 3 examples,

AFTER sizing up the enemy, there is a unusual step that we can easily overlook.

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Elija and the prophets of Baal

1 Kings 18:26

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.

30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs[a] of seed. 33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood.

This is where we come to in our lives… and we say: come Lord! But look at what Elija does next:

Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.”

34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again.

“Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.

Elija sabotages any strength/advantage he may have had. Completely antagonizing the enemy.

In fact, angering EVERYONE watching because of the severe drought they were in!

36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”

38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”

Surrender any favor with people we have built.

Recognize that favorable conditions cannot save us.

Pour water on the altar you need God to burn up!

We need a SAVIOR!

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David & Goliath

1 Samuel 17:38

38 Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. 39 David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them.

“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. 40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

David removes any defensive advantage he may have had in defeating Goliath.

41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”

45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

Remove any defense or shield we have built.

Let go of the hope in any “if God doesn’t come through…”

We need a SAVIOR!

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Gideon and the army of Midianites

Judges 7:4-7

4 But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.”

5 So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.

7 The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”

Gideon reduces any advantage he may have had in defeating the enemy.

We must remove any offensive weapons we have made that takes our trust in God and puts it into our capabilities

We need a SAVIOR!

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2 Corinthians 12:10 MSG

7-10 Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it’s all you need.

My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

Not

And the stronger my enemy becomes, the stronger I become.

—------ Angie, come up.

EXAMPLE: Working at Medtronic, losing that contract… we didn’t want to, but God told us to: Give all our savings to church.

God brought us to go on an RV trip around America.

We can either measure “impossible” by how big our enemy is or how weak we are.

It's very vulnerable and exposing to measure impossible by how weak we are.

To be honest: I would rather be ready to take the credit once God does the miracle. AFTER I have talked up how big and scary the enemy is…

That becomes very difficult when I have taken time to remove any favorable conditions, given up any defense or hope I had in my plan B, and cut short any edge I have to overtake the enemy in my own strength.

We are all in a season where we see how big the enemy is.

IF it is hindering your faith AND YOU FEEL GOD TELLING YOU:

Lets begin to pour water on our altars, remove our armor, and thin out our army.

Then we will cry out: I need a savior!