In God We Trust: Pt1-Trust Is Everything

January 13, 2018                               NOTES NOT EDITED
Giving Series:  Part 1, “Trust is Everything”
Hebrews 3:1-19

SIS – Giving to God through His Church is NOT about money – it’s about trust.

O.K., today we are going to begin a series of messages dealing with “Giving Money to God.”  Any sermon on giving is likely to receive one of two responses by the congregation.  Positive or negative.  Church-goers who are giving generously will have a positive response, even if they feel challenged to give more.   If a church member is not giving what they know they should be giving, they will feel the preacher is laying “guilt trip” on them.  Fact is, it isn’t the preacher causing the guilt, but the person’s disobedience. 

Suppose you go to a Doctor for your annual check-up  The Dr. is likely to start poking at you in various places and asking, “Does that hurt?”  Now, the poking and prodding may cause pain because the Dr. has been insensitive and poked too hard.   Or, more likely, the Dr.’s poking has found a sensitive spot indicating that something may be wrong.  The Dr. may say, “We have to order some more tests because it should not hurt when I poke you there.

Friends, it is always my intent to preach the truth of God with great love and care for those who will hear His message.  I do not wish to be insensitive or poke too hard.  If you feel any discomfort from these Bible-based messages on giving money to the Church, then I would pray that you ask the Great Physician, Jesus Christ, why you feel pain in that area of your Christian life.  I pray you will ask Jesus to diagnose your problem and prescribe a remedy so that you may receive the “full reward of your faith” (2Jn. 8).

SIS – Giving to God through His Church is not about money – it’s about trust.

Nobody is ever going to go to hell because they did not give enough money to the Church.  Nobody is going to go to heaven because they gave a lot of money to church.  Giving to God through His church is not about money – it’s about trust.

Friend, if your spiritual life shrivels up and dies on the vine it will not be because you did not “give enough money” to God through the Church – it will be because you never learned to “trust God.” 

Giving to God through His church is not about money – it is about trust.   “Do you trust God enough to give sacrificially to support His Work?”

I hate to carry change around in my pocket – especially pennies.  A penny is not much money.  You can’t buy much with a penny.  In fact, the United States Treasury has considered not even minting anymore pennies.  Since about 1982, copper pennies have not even been copper.  They are zinc with a copper coating.  At today’s copper prices, a penny isn’t even worth a penny.  I think it is something like 1/400^th of a cent of copper.

But a few years ago something struck me as I looked at a penny.  I realized that it was the most valuable piece of the world that I could ever possess.  So, I almost always have a penny in my pocket.  How is a penny so valuable?  It is not the little bit of precious copper that makes a penny.  It is the four words that are printed on the penny that make it immensely valuable:  “In God We Trust.”

Friends, that little penny you received when you came to church this morning holds the key to everything good that could come into your life – if you learn how to “trust God.”  I have a simple statement to make about “trusting God.”  Trust is EVERYTHING!

The writer of Hebrews guided by the Holy Spirit describes the horrible result of “failing to trust God.”  Read that with me (7-11):

⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear His voice, ⁸ do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, ⁹ where your fathers tested Me, tried _⌊Me_⌋, and saw My works ¹⁰ for 40 years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known My ways.” ¹¹ So I swore in My anger, “They will not enter My rest.”

The Scriptures clearly teach that one can absolutely miss the blessings of God if one fails to learn how to “trust God.”  There are three aspects of trusting God our text teaches:

1.  Trust has a PAST (vv 7-11; 16-18)

Another way of saying it is this:  Trust relies on the performance of God.

 Why was God provoked by Israel.  Look at verse 16:  For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it really all who came out of Egypt under Moses?

When you came into church this morning did any of you inspect the pew before you set down to see if it would support your weight?  Not likely.  You “trust” the pew will hold you because it has held you before – many times before.  You “trust” the pew based upon it’s PAST PERFORMANCE.

This is also true of God.  We trust him because of His performance in the past.  In the case of the Israelites did in what Hebrews calls, the day of rebellion.  KJV calls it the “provocation” because it provoked God to wrath.

This portion of Hebrews is a quote from Psalm 95.  Psalm 95 was a prophetic reflection on the worst day in the life of Israel, which we read about in Numbers 13 and 14.

You may be familiar with the story.  Israel had been a nation of slaves in Egypt forced into hard labor for over 450 years.  They lived a sub-human existence under the heavy hand of the Pharaoh.  They prayed for hundreds of years for God to send a deliverer to lead them out of bondage in Egypt.  God did just that with Moses, as you recall.  But Pharoah was not giving up on 2 million cheap laborers without a fight.  God had to send 10 plagues:  a river of blood, lice, flies, frogs, dead livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and finally the death of every first-born male child in Egypt.  God miraculously delivered the most insignificant nation from the most powerful nation ever know.  Then, when Pharoah had second thoughts and chased the Israelites to the Red Sea, God miraculously parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross and drowned the army of Pharoah.

Then, they rebelled and voted not to go into the Promised Land because they would have to fight for it – even though God had promised to give them victory.  Then, for forty years God cared for every need of His people while they wandered around in the Wilderness.  Did they stop provoking God and rebelling against God’s leadership?  The answer is: “No!”

Time and time and time again the Israelites grumbled.  Everytime they faced a challenged they whined and complained and resisted Gods direction.  EVEN AFTER GOD PROVED HIMSELF TIME AND TIME AGAIN – ISRAEL REFUSED TO TRUST HIM.  Sound like someone you know?  Maybe, . . . “you.”  Maybe, . . . me?

God has never let anyone down and we have well over 7000 years of recorded history chronicling God’s faithful “PERFORMANCE” on behalf of His people – but, so many still do not “TRUST” God enough to give at least 10 percent of the money God provides back to Him as a “TOKEN OF OUR TRUST.”

That’s what the “tithe” really is:  a token of trust.  Giving at least 10 percent to God through the Church is an “acknowledgment” that I trust Him to meet all my needs.  Giving to God through the Church is not about money – it’s about trust. 

Based upon God’s performance, we can trust God to take care of our every need.  In fact, giving God His “holy tithe” is the surest way to make sure that the 90 percent He lets you manage will provide all the needs of your family.

When we give at least 10 percent (a “tithe”) to God we are saying:  based upon His PAST PERFORMANCE, I trust Him to meet any need I or my family might have.  Trust not only has a past, but

2.  Trust has a PRESENT (1-6; 12-13; 4:2a)

Another way to say this is:  “Trust relies on the PERSON of God.”

The theme of Hebrews is “The Superiority of Jesus Christ.”  The Book of Hebrews begins by showing that Jesus is superior to angelic beings.  In this chapter (chapter 3) Hebrews is teaching us that Jesus is far superior to greatest figure in Hebrew life:  Moses.

Look at verses 3 and 4:

³ For Jesus is considered worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder has more honor than the house. ⁴ Now every house is built by someone, but the One who built everything is God.

Not only does the Book of Hebrews say Jesus is more superior as a Deliverer than Moses, but it says that Jesus is a more superior builder because Jesus did not just build a great “house” (nation of Israel) but Jesus was God and built everything!  The center of all creation is Jesus.

It is not enough just to know the History of God’s Performance in the PAST, but to be a dynamic, fully-devoted, Spirit-filled, sin-defeating, Devil-defying disciple, you must have a “daily relationship with the PERSON of God, that is Jesus Christ.”  This is where most people miss the boat in church – they know all the stories about God, but they do not have a daily relationship with God.  Notice vv. 12-13:

¹² Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil,unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. ¹³ But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.

Friends, a person can never be healthy physically if all they ever eat is “snack food.”  Unfortunately, that’s about all the Christianity most people get in their lives, “a snack of Jesus Sunday morning.”  You tear open a “bag of Jesus chips” and then toss a buck in the plate for good measure.

“Snacking on Jesus” and giving God your spare change will never give you victory in your life.  Look at verse 4:2:

² For we also have received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard did not benefit them.

Most church-goers (so-called Christians) never get any real benefit from going to church because they don’t have a daily relationship with the PERSON of God, Jesus Christ.  

I have said before that I never felt afraid of anything as long as my Father was around.  I trusted him completely.  I never remember him letting me down—not once.  But, I did not just trust “what” he did, but I trusted “who” he was.  Friends, that’s what TRUST is all about:  a relationship.  I TRUSTED my father with my life because I KNEW him and had a DAILY relationship with him.

The same is true with Jesus.  You will never trust Jesus enough to give at least 10 percent of your income to the Church, if you are not having a daily, growing relationship with Him.

Trust has a PAST.  We trust the past performance of God.  Trust has a PRESENT.  We rely on the PERSON of God who we have a daily relationship with.

3.  Trust also has a FUTURE (v. 14)   Look at verse 14:

For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.

Notice the word, “companion.”  This is a word that describes a deep sharing between two persons which supports what I said about trust relying on a relationship with the PERSON of God.  But, there is another translation of this word that perhaps brings out the meaning even more sharply.  The NIV for example translates this verse as:  

We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end.

This verse clearly sets forth a wonderful truth which gives us another basis for “trusting God” in regard to the future.  We could say it like this:   “Trust relies on the PROMISE of God.”  One day, called in this verse “the end” God has promised to give us everything His Son, Jesus, now has.  What exactly is that?

You can sum up what we will share with Jesus in one word:  “heaven.”  That’s what is promised to every person who fully and without any reservation puts his or her trust in God as the Lord of Life and Savior of the Soul.  Heaven.  One day we will receive it either in death or the rapture, whichever comes first for us.  Heaven.  Can I give you a glimpse of glory?  Revelation 21:

¹⁰ He then carried me away in the Spirit  ^a to a great and high mountain  and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹ arrayed with God’s glory.  Her radiance was like a very precious stone, like a jasper stone, bright as crystal. ¹² _⌊The city_⌋ had a massive high wall, with 12 gates.
……………………………….

¹⁸ The building material of its wall was jasper, and the city was pure gold like clear glass.  ¹⁹ The foundations of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone:  the first foundation jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst.  ²¹ The 12 gates are 12 pearls; each individual gate was made of a single pearl. The broad street  of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

Every person that places his or her trust in God, has been given the promise by God, that he or she will one day share everything that Jesus Christ has – not the least of all – a home in heaven.  Wow, with a PROMISE like that, why wouldn’t someone want to TRUST God?

Yet, as wonderful as that promise is, many do not trust God.  If someone cannot trust God enough to give back to Him at least the “tithe” He has demanded, how can that person say they have trusted God enough to save their soul?  I don’t see how it is possible for a person to say, “I trust God for my salvation,” when they cannot trust God for their finances.

This series of messages is about “Giving Money to God through His Church.”  Today’s message is: “Trust is Everything.”  Giving to God through His church is not about money – it’s about trust.  Giving is less about what the church needs than Who is the Founder of the Church.  It is less about generosity and more about devotion

Do you trust God to give you your daily bread?  Or, are you trusting in your own cleverness or self-reliance to provide for your needs and the needs of your family.

This message has done quite a bit of “poking” around.  As I said earlier, nobody really likes a doctor poking around with them.  But, if we need a doctor, we must trust him or her at least to some extent.  We cannot heal ourselves.  According to a news article I read a few years ago there was a man in London whose mistrust for Drs. was a bit extreme.  In London there was an accountant who was sixty-three years old. It had become apparent that this accountant had a bladder problem and needed a simple surgery to correct it.  His extreme mistrust (even fear) of Drs. drove him to do something that is unthinkable – he decided to operate on himself!  He read up on the surgery and set forth to take matters into his own hands – literally.  Surprisingly, he survived the surgery.  But, and infection set in and he died a few weeks later.  In a news interview the local coroner who examined the accountant’s body said, “Unfortunately, his drastic remedy went wrong.  A simple operation in a proper environment with a certified Doctor would have solved the problem.”  The man died not from bladder problems, but from “trust issues.”  The man did not trust doctors and hospitals.

I wonder if this message hit a sore spot with some of you.  If you are not giving to God because you don’t really trust Him to meet your needs, then you have a serious spiritual disease.  It is a disease you cannot heal yourself.  You need to come to the Great Physician and be healed, today.  You need to confess your lack of trust, and ask God to fill you with Himself so that you know Him intimately and can trust Him implicitly.

You can’t heal yourself physically, and you sure can’t heal yourself spiritually. But, what you cannot do, Jesus can and will do if you heed His Word:

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts (3:7-8)

Trusting God is everything.  “Listen and obey.”   If you have trusted God for the salvation of your soul, you can certainly trust him with your finances.

Ingredients

January 6, 2019                       NOTES NOT EDITED

Ingredients for a Great Year!
John 6:1-15

SIS: In the New Year we have the opportunity to partner with God to do something great and exciting!

When I hear the someone say, “Happy New Year”  I am reminded of how important it is to have the right priorities in life so that a year can actually be “happy” and “new.”  It’s all about priorities.

I heard about a rich man who was determined to take his wealth with him. He told his wife to get all his money together, put it in a sack, and then hang the sack from the rafters in the attic. He said, "When my spirit is caught up to heaven, Ill grab the sack on my way." Well he eventually died, and the woman raced to the attic, only to find the money still there. She said, "I knew I should’ve put the sack in the basement."

To paraphrase Jesus in regard to priorities, “Your relationship with your money will determine the direction of your departure!”

A successful marriage, like a successful life in general, is an extremely difficult thing to pull off.  It really is a "miracle" when two people do manage to honor God in marriage.  Often, building a successful life can involve a great deal of conflict, just like a great marriage.

Even in the best of marriages, there will be times of difficulty and strife.  This week I read about a man who had served faithfully in church for years.   He went to the Pastor for marital counseling. He had attended church for 25 years, was a respected leader in the church. "Pastor, I've got something awful to tell you. I've never told this to a soul, it is extremely difficult to tell you this now, but my wife and I have had a fight every day for the past 30 years of our marriage."  The Pastor taken back didn't know what to say to the man. Playing for time to gather thoughts, said, "Every day?" "Yes, every day." "Did you today before you came to church?" "Yes." "Well, how did it end up?" She came crawling to me on her hands and knees." "What did she say?" "Come out from under that bed you coward and fight like a man!"

Friends, don't expect to be successful in marriage, a successful life, or a “Happy New Year” to just happen.  You must learn how to partner with God to see miracles happen—or, to have a “Happy New Year.”

Suppose I could give you the ingredients for How to Make a Miracle Happen, would you be interested?  Notice, I did not say, “How to pray for a miracle.”  I did not say, “How to study about miracles.”  I said, “How to MAKE a miracle!”  Sometimes I think we pray without faith when we pray only because we want God to send a miracle.  I think real faith can take a step or two beyond just asking for miracles.  I think real faith can actually make miracles happen.  Much of the responsibility for a “Happy New Year” is in our own hands.  At least that’s what I get from what Jesus said (Mt. 17:20),

If you have faith the size of  a mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you.”  Notice, “you” move the mountain, not Jesus!

Now, I am in know way saying that any of us can cause a miracle to happen just by applying a simple formula.  I am not saying you and I have any special powers to create miracles.  What I am saying is that I believe a sovereign God wants to do a miraculous work in and through his people to bring many to a saving knowledge of Him.  Only God can do a miracle – but He chooses to partner with His people.

The miracle we are going to study this morning is the only miracle recorded in all four gospels.  That must mean it has a very special significance.  I think it does.  It gives us three steps for “How to Make a Miracle.”

Now, I was tempted to call this message, “How Children’s Ministry Pays Off Big,” because a little child provided the ingredients for a miracle that fed 1000's.  I decided to go with my first instinct but I want you to know – I REALLY BELIEVE CHILDREN’S MINISTRY CAN PAY BIG DIVIDENDS FOR OUR CHURCH.

Someday, I hope God will lead me to preach that message.

For now, let’s look at the ingredients that go into a God-sized miracle event in your life!

1.  The first ingredient is a VISION TO SEE IT (vv. 5-7)

One of the great churches in America is Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, Il.  It was started by a young seminary graduate by the name of Bill Hybels and a small handful of men.  20 years later, it is a major force in the community with as many as 20,000 members and attenders.  It now has nearly 30,000 attendees and multiple sites.

In one of his books he writes – and I think it true – “The most potent weapon for world change is VISION!”  Vision is the energy that creates action.  It is the fire that ignites the passion.”

If a church - our church or any church - is ever going to grow and reach souls for Christ “God-honoring, kingdom-advancing, heart-thumping vision.” (Hybels).

Years ago a college professor said to our class (and he may have been repeating it from one of his mentors): “Class, if you can conceive it, God can achieve it.”  How true that is.

Vision is not a wish.  It is not a hope.  It is not a goal.  Vision is an image fixed in a Christian’s mind and heart that is as real a daybreak and stunning as the sunset. Vision goes beyond what “could be.” Vision is a mental picture of what “will” be. Any thing less than this is mere wishful thinking.  All “wishing on a star” will  not create a new reality.  Only a God-sized vision will.

Now, vision is exactly what Philip did NOT have.

Now, having said that, let me turn to two characters in our story to illustrate what I mean by vision.  Look at the verbal exchange between Jesus and Philip, vv 5-7,

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!"

Verse 6 tells us that Jesus was “testing” Philip.  Now, a test of this type in Scripture was for the purpose of “improvement,” not punishment.  I know that many times in my years in school, some professors and teachers delighted in giving tests as a means of “punishing” the students in the class.  Such teachers derived a sadistic pleasure from the pain of students. This test was to show Philip (and the other disciples – and you and I, today) what happens when there is no vision.

Notice: Philip was blind the possibilities, but he had no problem seeing the COST of everything.

Blindness of necessity breeds caution.  Without vision, a person must move slowly and methodically, just to stay alive.  But, God does not want His church to wander blindly tapping the cane of analysis to the point of paralysis -- God can give us a vision that gives us the ability to see our success before we ever experience it.

Years ago, David Livingston left the safety of his England home to go to the "Dark Continent" of Africa.  This was in the late 1800's still an uncharted, largely unexplored, hostile continent.  Yet, David Livingston wanted to bring the Light of Christ to this dark land, so he set out for this Dark Continent.  His friends are said to have asked, "Dr. Livingston, what direction will you go?"  Livingston is recorded as saying something like,  "It doesn't much matter, as long as it is forward."

Vision always catapults God's people forward just like
a mighty river always carries its waters onward to its destination.

Anytime God’s people move forward, there will be people at Philip’s position on the growth plan.  They will speak up quickly about “how much such and such will cost.”  Now, like Philip, they are not being positive.  They are not trying to merely count the cost.  They see no reason something SHOULD be done, or no way something CAN be done.

Jesus was “assessing” Philip.  Jesus was teaching Philip the necessity of developing Godly vision.  Jesus was using Philip as an object lesson of the need to “see things God’s way.”  Vision is a matter of always seeing the “God factor” in every situation.  Adding the “God factor” one can see things as the can be – as they SHOULD be – not as they are.  I’ll say more about this later.

Remember Bill Hybels definition of vision:  “Vision is the energy that creates action.  It is the fire that ignites the passion.”  People often think of “vision” as “seeing” an outcome—like a picture.  I prefer to think of vision as a “GPS” system guiding us to a determined outcome.

Philip’s lack of vision – as it always does – causes paralysis of analysis.

A person with a lack of vision can see only the cost of actions – never the benefits.  The lack of vision will stop a Christian or a church dead in it’s tracks.

The first step in the “making of a miracle” is to have vision: Jesus and Philip saw the same situation, but from two totally different perspectives.  Jesus always added in the “God factor” while He walked upon this earth.  Adding the “God factor” allows us to have vision – not just sight.

2.  The next ingredient is COURAGE TO TRY IT (vv 8-9)

Remember Mikey in the 80’s:  “Try it, you’ll like it!”  A commercial would show Mikey’s older brothers getting him to try a new cereal.  Mikey was the guinea pig.  But . . . Mikey “liked it!”

Now, what exactly is “it?”  That’s a fair question. I’m glad you asked?

“It” is trying anything except more of the same thing.

Notice the courage of Andrew: vv 8-9

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?"

Andrew had just witnessed Philip’s exchange with Jesus, and Philip was not doing too well.  From the language of the text, it was probably clear that Jesus was putting pressure on Philip.

And, yet Andrew speaks up.  When I was a little boy and one of my brother’s or sisters was in trouble, the last thing I would do was get involved.  I got out of the line of fire.  In families, when one child gets a dressin’ down, it has a tendency to spill over on the other children.  I’m not saying that is the way it SHOULD be, but that is often the way it is.  When Dad or Mom are on the “correcting mode,” it is best to “not be seen and not be heard.”

Andrew speaks up and by all ways of measure has a POOR plan at best. There are 5000 men plus women and children.  Perhaps there are 10,000 to 15,000 individuals on that hillside.  Andrew’s plan: feed them with five biscuits and two sardines.  That’s what the boys lunch translates into in our day.

But Andrew deserves credit.  He at least offered a plan. 

Philip offered statistics.

Great people DO things.  Great churches DO things.  We don’t just talk about doing things – we DO things.  At least we should.  Today, I am telling you that GREAT DOCTRINE has never built a GREAT CHURCH.  Right doctrine is absolutely essential – but right doctrine has never built a church.  Listen to what James says:  James 1:22

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

I like to say it this way: “Our lost family and friends will not care what we know, until they know that we care.”  If we want God to do miracles in our midst – and I want to go on record saying I believe He can and will – then, we need the courage to try whatever it takes to reach people for Jesus Christ.  Miracles take COURAGE.

There is a character in the classic work Don Quixote named Pancho Sanchez. Pancho Sanchez hangs in fear from the ledge of a window all night long attempting an escape, too frightened to let go. When morning dawns he discovers his toes are only an inch off the ground. It's amusing to think of Simon Peter climbing out of the boat trying to imitate his Lord by walking on the water. Then, like a cartoon character, he makes the mistake of looking around. "What in the world am I doing?" he asked himself and suddenly he begins to sink. How often that happens in life. People are charting a successful course in their business, in their marriage, in their walk with Christ, and then they begin to listen to their fears. "What if I fail? What if the market fails? What if my faith is misplaced?" and they begin slowly to sink.

Many times I've read stories about courage on the battlefield, or some other grand event.  But, where I have seen real courage over the years has been in the lives of little boys and girls I have met over the years.  Poor kids that go to school hungry every day.  Poor kids that go to school wearing hand-me-down clothes that never quite fit right.  That’s where I’ve seen courage.  Courage to get up every day knowing that you are starting the day with two strikes against you. THAT’S COURAGE!

It is so like God to make a little boy the hero in this story.  

I’m asking you all to show a little courage in your lives.  Instead of offering statistics for why something may fail, why not show a little courage and say,

Let's follow a little boys example and say,  “Let’s try!”  Let’s try sharing a little more.  Let’s try giving a little more.  Let’s try loving a little more.  Let’s try serving the community a little more.  Let’s try!

I wonder . . . . what would happen here at FBC-TO if we were willing to risk everything in the hope of seeing God do a miracle.  What if we were willing to “mortgage it all” in the belief that God had great things

in store for us?  What if we had just a little more courage to try something radical?

3.  Faith to SEE IT DONE (v9, “Here is a boy”)

I don’t know what possessed Andrew to offer his pitiful plan.  It could not be called “faith” exactly, because Andrew said, “But.”  “But what is this among so many.”  If Andrew’s initial intent had any faith mixed with it, it burned out quicker than a discount lightbulb. 

Maybe Andrew showed a little courage, but I wouldn’t call it faith.

The little boy – now that is faith.  He was poor little boy.  That lunch was a treasure to him.  I imagine when he saw Andrew coming toward him, and the little boy sensed that his lunch was in jeopardy – the little boy promptly sat on it.  NOW I CANNOT SAY THIS FOR SURE – BUT IT WOULD MAKE SENSE.

How do I know the little boy was poor.  Because the Word says that the loaves (actually small, flat cakes) were made out of barley.  Barley was a coarse grain usually the feed for animals.  It wasn’t as smooth or good as wheat.  It was the food of the poor.  The fish were probably equivalent to two small sardines.  As was the custom of the area, they were probably “salt pickled.”  They were little more than a snack.  A meager mouthful.  It was all the little boy had. 

     I can see the scene in my mind of how that little poor kid’s day started.  “Mom, mom I’m going out to Jesus, the one who has been doing miracles.  I’ll be home before dark.”  I imagine his mother protested.  But the little boy persisted.  “OK,” mom says, “but let me fix you a lunch.”  She gathered together the little bit she could find.  I see her wrapping it in a clean cloth, putting it in a little basket, and handing it to her boy.  Off he went to the countryside. 

     Now it is late in the day.  The little boy has been following Jesus and listening to Jesus preach.  He gets hungry.  He unwraps his lunch and catches the eye of Andrew.  Andrew takes the boy and his lunch to Jesus.

Here is where “faith” really kicks in.  If the boy had been rich and had another lunch stashed somewhere, the story would lack the force it has for us.  This story has the same element as the story of the widow’s mite.  She, too, was poor and gave all she had.  Wouldn’t it be something to get to heaven and find out that the “widow” was this little poor boy’s Mom.  AGAIN, I DON’T KNOW ABOUT THAT, BUT IT WOULD BE JUST LIKE GOD TO USE A LITTLE, INSIGNIFICANT CHILD OF A NAMELESS INSIGNIFICANT WIDOW TO DO THE ONLY MIRACLE RECORDED IN ALL FOUR GOSPELS!

The lad gave His lunch to Jesus.  There was no guarantee of getting anything back.  His lunch was gone.  As a poor little boy I’m sure he had been left out many times before, and no doubt thought he’d be left out again.  His little lunch was GONE!

Friends, I doubt if any of us in this room knows how to give with such faith. Even if we think we give away a lot, we know we keep even more.  This boy gave all he had.  Friends – that pounds me into the ground with a hammer of conviction.

Where is our faith?

A little goes a long way when you put it in the hands of Jesus.  All throughout the Bible we see this principle scattered like peanut shells on a bar floor.  He used a tiny baby to win the heart of Pharoah’s daughter that would lead to the deliverance of His people.  God used the humble rod of a shepherd in the hand of Moses to work miracles before the Great Pharaoh.  God used the a small stone from the shepherd sling of David to fell the giant, Goliath. 

When we turn to the N.T. we see the “Biggest use of something insignificant.” God defeated the Devil with a piece of wood – THE CROSS.

There was nothing more despised in that day than the cross.  There was a saying, repeated in the Gospel, “Cursed is he who is hung on a tree.”  God defeated the Devil with that which was most despised.

There is no instrument in the Hands of God that cannot be used mightily to accomplish His purposes – including you through your life.

Jesus  once said to his disciples, “Oh, ye of little faith.”  Certainly that was an admonishment for their lack of trust, but it was also a recognition of great possibility.  For, a little faith in the hands the Master is always enough – just like a couple fish and few biscuits.

Jesus does not despise  these small things but delights in putting them into the service of his father.  Andrew was right in his analysis: “What are these among so many.”  But, Andrew was wrong in his faith.  For, in the hands of Jesus, two little fish and five biscuits fed a multitude.

I SAID, “IN THE HANDS OF JESUS TWO LITTLE FISH AND FIVE BISCUITS FED A MULTITUDE!”

But, let me point out – nothing happened as long as the little boy’s lunch stayed in his basket.  Faith happens when we give our selves completely to the work of God. 

If we are going to beat back the blackness of sin in our lives or in our society, faith has to become something more than a topic for Sunday School literature. Faith must become a soldier sent to the front lines to do battle with the enemy.

Faith must become a smooth stone picked from the brook of struggle and launched from the sling of faith.

Wishing that  hunger would go away in our world won’t feed anybody. Wishing that the poor children of this world have clothes won’t put shoes on any feet or shirts on any backs.  Wishing that the homeless would find shelter won’t keep anybody from freezing on the streets of eastern cities this winter.  Friends, we need to do more about our faith than rub our prayer lists like they are an Aladdin’s Lamp and God is Grand Cosmic Genie!

Faith that isn’t put into action isn’t faith!  As one writer has put it, “Faith is a verb.”  “Pisteuo,” is a verb which literally means, “I am faithing,” like, “I am running,” or “I am jumping.”

TRUE BELIEF TRANSLATES INTO ACTION.

Would you look into the basket of your life, today and ask yourself, what could God do with my gifts and talents if I handed myself over to Him completely.

Faith is action.  Faith is giving.  Faith is going.  Faith is praying by first looking into your own life to see what you might have in your basket that if placed into the Lord’s hands would be the seed of a miracle.

Vision to see it.  Courage to do it.  Faith to believe it.

These are the ingredients that lead to God working miracles and guaranteeing a truly “Happy” and “New” Year.

Isn’t it about time to start mixing the ingredients for a
great and prosperous New Year in your life?