MIRACLES
Today, we have a miracle in our passage of scripture. Miracles are important in our lives. Jesus had a specific reasons for performing miracles. The main reason for the miracles in Jesus’ day was to prove His divinity. HE wanted witnesses to the His divinity.

MIRACLES IN THE BOOK OF ACTS ALSO HAD SPECIFIC REASONS
There were reasons for the Miracles in the book of Acts. For all of you who are not familiar, the book of Acts is the book where the church begins. It is a book with stories of the continuation of Christ’s work in the world.

Each chapter in the book of Acts is full of miracles and conversions to Christianity accomplished through the Apostles. Right before this passage, God heals a paralyzed man through Peter.

In the book of Acts of the Apostles, God was carrying out His building campaign. God’s campaign was constructed so that the work of Christ would go on.

MIRACLES IN ACTS
Miracles happen because God has a building plan and He is working our His campaign. That is why miracles were happening in the book of Acts and that is why they happen today. God in His faithfulness to His church continues His building campaign today. And when we open our hearts to the message of these miracles, the building plan unfolds.

Builds Us
ILLUSTRATION
Two nuns were returning to the hospital where they worked when they ran out of gas. They hailed a passing driver who said he would be happy to give them some - he could siphon it from his tank. The only problem was he had nothing to put the gas in. The nuns looked in their car but they found no container except a bedpan. This will have to do, they decided. So they filled it with gas from the man's car and waved goodbye as he drove away. As the nuns were emptying the bedpan into their gas tank, a trucker drove by. He slowed down, did a double take, and rolled down his window. As he passed he shouted, "Now that's faith."

BUILDS OUR FAITH AND TRUST IN HIM - THE BODY OF CHRIST
God gives us miracles today to build us up. In His campaign, we are built. God builds our faith and our trust in Him. When we see miracles happening in others and in us, we are reminded of the greatness of our God.

ILLUSTRATION: SHARON
Sharon Mockler, although she plays the organ at Middlebury church, she is a member of this congregation and plays for us when we need her to fill in. If you know her well, you know she suffers from debilitating arthritis in her hands. Although she plays the organ it is not without terrible pain.

Sharon had something happen to her that built her faith and trust in God. She came to me a few weeks ago and said “I don’t know if I told you that when my hands were anointed, the pain in my hands completely left.” No pain! Can you believe that? She said “I am telling everyone.” What a miracle. I called her this week to ask her if I could use her in my sermon, she did not hesitate. I asked her if she was still pain free and she said “Oh yes, I am.” She said because it was raining, her thumb was stiff but with no pain as the rest of her hand and her fingers.

Sharon’s miracle is an example of God building her faith and ours. As she tells her story, we are reminded of our powerful God and His presence in our life.

PETER
That is what is happening today. God is building the faith of His people and the people who don’t even know Him.

Through this passage of scripture, God heals Dorcas through Peter and the weeping widows and the saints are witnesses to God’s power.

God is building their faith and to the people who they tell. It is important to know that God is building the faith of His followers.

He builds those who do not know Him as well as people want to know of the God who loves and who is faithful to His people. They want to know the power and presence of our God.

God is in a building campaign when He begins to do miracles in our midst. He is in a building campaign of individual faith and trust.

BUILDING OUR CHURCH
JOKE
There is the story of a preacher who got up one Sunday and announced to his congregation: "I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new building program. The bad news is, it's still out there in your pockets."

God is not building a building but building the body of Christ in numbers here. He is in the midst of building our church.

When God begins to do miracles, God is in the midst doing something in that church.

ACTS - PEOPLE GROWING IN GOD BEING BUILD UP - PAUL’S CONVERSION
In every book in Acts, there is conversion or miracles. There is no exception. This is how the church grows. People begin to grow in God. God performs these miracles where people are being healed and people are changed.

Remember Paul and his great conversion. There is great change when God is in a building campaign and He uses miracles like the one in the passage today and like Sharon’s miracle to build the church in numbers.

Although Sharon attends Middlebury, her healing took place right here at Creekside.

People are changed in the midst. Not just a physical healing like Sharon’s but in their emotional health and spiritual health, God is in the midst carrying out His building campaign and we can see it everywhere.

Lots of dirt and dust is flying around as God begins to tear down old walls while building new walls of trust and love. Old ways of doing things are being discarded while God is teaching us knew ways to be the church. Relationships are being healed and new ones are being formed.

This is God’s building campaign.

TELLING EVERYONE
Do you know Sharon, told me “I am healed and I am telling everyone.” Praise God. That is how the church grew in Acts. People were telling everyone.

The passage says in the next to the last verse that “This became known throughout Joppa and many believed in the Lord.”

BUILDING UP OUR GOD
In a book called "Faith, Hope and Hilarity," actor Dick Van Dyke gives us a collection of amusing sayings representing "The Child's Eye View of Religion." He tells a story of a little girl named Laurie. She came home from a Sunday School class and told her mother excitedly that the whole class sang a song in her honor: "Laurie, Laurie, Halleluiah." Hearing this, her little brother said, "The right name for that song is "Glory, Glory Honolulu."

However you say it, giving praise to God builds up God. Miracles lift up God and they give glory to the one who performs the miracles.

We should be telling everyone of the way God is changing us. We should be telling everyone that God is performing miracles right here in our church.

The people all believed in God. That is how we give glory to God - by telling all the people how God is working in our midst. Everyone begins to talk about what our God is doing here at Creekside.

That what was happening in Acts.

Everyone was talking about God. The whole town was coming to Christ. Not just this town but in this chapter an entire region knew who God was. God was performing the miracles and they were building the faith and trust of the people, building the church in numbers and building Himself

CLOSING
God uses His power in miracles to build His church. He does this because He is faithful to His people. 2 Timothy says, "God is faithful even in our faithlessness because he can’t deny who He is.”

God is faithful to build His church. He uses anyone and any mode to do it.

He builds His people to begin the building process. He builds our faith. He builds our trust.

He uses these miracles just as He did in the book of Acts.

He builds His church as He moves in. We begin to see the church doing and growing in new ways.

We build God up as we give Him glory while we watch and work in His midst.