July 26, 2009

Not Enough

2 Kings 4:42-44

Psalm 145:10-18

Ephesians 3:14-21

John 6:1-15

This past Friday, Jennifer and I celebrated our tenth anniversary.  So we have been looking back over the last ten years and all that we have been through as a couple and now as a family and ministry.  It has been kind of a time in which we can go back and look at the vows we have taken to see how we have done so far.  For better or for worse...check.  In sickness and in health...check.  For richer or for poorer...hmmm.  I think that we have gotten that poorer part down.  It's the richer part I am still waiting on.  Are there any other married couples out there still waiting on the richer part of their wedding vows to kick in?  Jen and I are with you there. 

Now I take that back because although we have never been confused with being rich, I have never really considered myself poor.  I know...without a doubt that I can look back, time after time, and see where the Lord has provided just what we have needed.  I consider myself blessed among men.  Blessed as a father, as a husband, and as your pastor.  It is a no-brainer.  I am blessed.  

But there are a lot of people who might not see things that way.  Our society is all about instant self-gratification.  We have to have the biggest, the best, the newest, and the fastest, and we want it...now.  It doesn't really matter if we need it or not.  We want it, and we are going to get it.

A friend of mine moved to the Atlanta area.  He had a pretty good job working for General Tire.  It didn't take him long to meet up with a little ol' Georgia peach and get married.  Before they were even married, they bought a brand new house.  Three bedrooms, cathedral ceilings...gorgeous house.  About two years later, when they had their first child, they sold that house a built a brand new four-bedroom house.  Four bedrooms for three people.  As best as I can tell, it must be a metro Atlanta yuppie sort of thing.  It says that you have go to keep up with the Jones, and the Smiths, and the Robinsons...and everyone else around you.  In that type of setting, it is not enough...to have enough.  You have to have more.  You have to have all that you want...and more than you need.

I look at the passage from John 15, and I see a stark contrast between the teachings of Jesus, and what our world seems to follow today.  Jesus is teaching, preaching and healing the people.  When he enters a new town, the people seek him out.  When he tries to get away, they follow him. 

⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" ⁶ He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. ⁷ Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"

In the passages from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it even says that the disciples asked Jesus to send the crowds away.  There was not enough food.  There was not enough money.  There was not enough time.  Philip has no real answer for Jesus.  The crowds will simply have to go hungry. 

⁸ Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, ⁹ "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?"

First Philip, and now Andrew.  Five loaves...two fish...it's not enough.  I suspect that if any of had been there that day, we probably would have said the same thing.  We do not know what God knows.  We do not see what God sees.  We would have seen loaves and fish.  But God saw much more. 

First, and possibly the most important was...the boy.  We do not know his name or where he came from.  We do not know his history or his family background.  But we can get a pretty good idea where his heart is.  The five loaves and two fish...were his.  He could have hid them from the others.  He could have slipped away and eaten them in secret.  He could have sat there in front of the others and eaten them.  It was his food.  Besides, what good would it have been for him to give it away?  Then no one would have enough to eat...including him. 

But something was there... it was faith...that faith of a child.  He had been with the crowd, and he had seen Jesus healing.  He had heard Jesus teaching.  That boy saw something in Jesus that led him to surrender all that he had.  I believe it was faith that led him to bring the food forward and to give it away. 

¹⁰ Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. ¹¹ Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. ¹² When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted."

Five loaves and two fishes in your hands or my hands...wouldn't amount to much.  But in the hands of Jesus, they became a feast.  They had twelve baskets of leftovers.  They went from not enough...to baskets overflowing.  All it took was the faith of one child...and the power of Jesus. 

I know that this will probably be an unpopular view, but I think that our nation's prosperity has been our nation's greatest weakness.  We began as a nation trusting in God to supply our needs...IN GOD WE TRUST.  Yet, we are now at the point where we feel the need to keep up with the rest of the world around us...and we believe that we have the strength...the wisdom...the power do it on our own. 

We work.  We earn.  We buy.  We consume.  We hoard.  We hold on.  Think of it.  How many of us...honestly...would have given up our last bits of food to such a seemingly lost cause?   But that is exactly what God requires of us.  Christianity is a lost cause.      It is God's unreasonable love extended to the lost people of this earth...the one he created.  

We are supposed to live a life of not enough.  It keeps our faith burning hot.  It keeps our minds focused on the God who loves us and gives us what we really need.  It keeps our hearts centered on the needs of others rather than our own. 

Listen, I know that there is a difference between not having enough and thinking that you do not have enough.  I am not saying that we all need to sell everything, give it away, and go live in tents somewhere.  Living a life of not enough, is simply trusting In God when the world says you need more.  Living a life of not enough, is trusting In God when the world says you're a fool for your faith.

I can tell you firsthand with God, we always have just what we need.

Trusting the Lord with all you have   Be willing to sacrifice it all.  You might not think that you have anything to offer him.  But you do.  Give him your time.  We often spend our time doing a whole lot of nothing.  Give him your talents.  AND YES...you do have talents.  Give him your gifts.  Trust him with your finances and resources.

1. He gave it to you in the first place.
2. He can do more with it than you could ever imagine.
3. Use what we have...and who we are...to bless others more than we can imagine.

The world would look at our family's finances and tell us most vehemently...you cannot afford to be a pastor.  Go get a real job, so you can take care of your family the way they should be.  And another thing...cut out that tithing stuff.  You're just throwing your money away. 

You see, I have learned what Paul has learned.  I have learned to live in plenty...and in want. 

When the world of NOT ENOUGH meets the GOD of OVERFLOWING PROVIDENCE then the world will truly have just what it needs.  God is able to do so much more than we think of imagine

My grace is sufficient for you....last week.