A Gateway sermon.
Gateway Church's Podcast
One Lunch
(audience applauding) - Thank you, Robert. Good evening. It's so good to be here. My name is John. What's your name? Nice to meet you, nice to meet you. Since we have just a couple extra minutes, and I'm really able to teach, I have an amazing sense of humor, and I'm 59, and I have discovered the meaning of life. And I have it here on this laminated card, 'cause all of us has questions about life, and I'm just so excited because I figured it out, and I laminated it. Which means, when I laminate something, it means it's extremely special. If I would have been Moses, well, I don't have to top them out, signy eye. (audience laughing) I would have laminated the Ten Commandments, you know what I'm sayin'? I mean, I wouldn't have put 'em on stone. You know, those things will break. (audience laughing) I'm gonna explain life to you right now. On the first day, God created the dog. God said, "Sit all the day by the door of your house, "and bark at anyone that comes by. "I'll give you a life span of 20 years of the dog, "so that's too long to be barking. "Give me 10 years, and I'll give you back the other 10." And God agreed. On the second day, God created the monkey. God said, "Entertain, people do monkey tricks, "make them laugh. "I'll give you a 20-year life span." The monkey said, "How boring, monkey tricks for 20 years?" I don't think so. The dog gave you back 10, so that's what I'll do too, okay? And God agreed. On the third day, God created the cow. God said, "You must go out in the field with the farmer "all day long, suffer under the sun, have calves, "give milk to support the farmer. "I'll give you a life span of 60 years." The cow said, "That's kind of a tough life "you want me to live for 60 years. "Let me have 20, and I'll give you back the other 40." And God agreed. On the fourth day, God created man. God said, "Eat, sleep, play, marry, enjoy your life. "I'll give you 20 years." Man said, "What?" (audience laughing) Only 20 years. Tell you what, I'll take my 20, add the 40 that the cow gave you back, the 10 the monkey gave you back, the 10 the dog gave you back, that makes 80, okay? Okay, God said, "You've got to deal." So that is why the first 20 years of our lives, (audience laughing) I see the train of coming. (audience laughing) That's why the first 20 years of our lives, I just know what's gonna be said. (audience laughing) That's why the first 20 years of our lives, we eat, sleep, play, and enjoy ourselves. For the next 40 years, we slave under the sun to support our family. For the next 10 years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. (audience laughing) For the last 10 years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everybody that goes by. (audience laughing) (audience laughing) You have just had life, explain to you. (audience laughing) Get your piece of paper because I wanna talk to you about how a biblical miracle works. And I only have 27 minutes to do it. (audience laughing) A reason I want you to write this down, it's gonna be about two to three lines, is because I promise you, many of you within the next couple of weeks are gonna come back to this piece of paper because you're gonna need a miracle from God and you're gonna say, "I wanna John say, "how does a biblical miracle work in my life?" So are you ready? Here we go. It's gonna be two or three lines I'll repeat it a few times so I'll make sure that you have it. When there's a need, sensed by a few. When there's a need, sensed by a few. And each individual understands his responsibility. When there's a need, sensed by a few. And each individual understands his responsibility or her responsibility, okay? And gives his all regardless of the odds. When there's a need, sensed by a few. And each individual understands his responsibility and gives his all regardless of the odds. Then Jesus works a miracle. I'll repeat it. When there's a need, sensed by a few. And each individual understands his responsibility and gives his all regardless of the odds. Then Jesus works a miracle. Do you have that written down, huh? Okay, let's read it together as an congregation. Let's read it aloud. When there's a need, sensed by a few. And each individual understands his responsibility and gives his all regardless of the odds. Then Jesus works a miracle. The story is told in all four gospels. In fact, it's the only miracle of our Lord that is recorded in all four gospels. And I'm gonna read at a mark chapter six and I'm gonna read it out of the message because we know the story of the feeding of the 5,000. And as I get ready to read this story to you, think about it for a moment. One life, one life made a difference for 5,000 people. Here's the story. When Jesus arrived with his disciples, he saw a huge crowd and at the side of them his heart broke. Like she with no shepherd they were and they went right to work teaching them. Now, I wanna stop here for a moment 'cause I have a sense of humor. Whenever I read something that strikes me as funny, I just think it's funny. Get the picture. Jesus has been teaching now probably for a couple of hours, large crowd out there hearing. And this next phrase just kind of cracks me up. When his disciples thought that this had gone on long enough. How would you like to be known as the person who interrupted Jesus? The greatest teacher ever, teaching incredible words of eternal life but they're tapping the shore and saying, "Lord, it's gone on long enough." And then when they interrupted them, they went on and said, "We are a long way out in the country. It's very late. Pronounce of benediction." And suddenly spoke also they can get some supper and I love this next phrase. Jesus said, "You do it. You fix supper for them." They replied, "Are you serious? You want us to go spend a fortune on food for their supper but he was quite serious. How many loaves of bread do you have? Take an inventory." That didn't take long. Five, they said, plus two fish. Now you know the story. Jesus took this kid's lunch and he took this lunch and he prayed over, blessed and multiplied it and the great miracle of feeding of the 5,000 occurred. One lunch, one life made a huge difference that day for thousands of people. When I see a kid, we used to play this game. I don't know what the name of the game is. I call it the hot and cold game. I don't think that is the title. But it was a fun game and I'm gonna explain it to you and see if you played it. Let's just say the water bottle is the object that I'm to find. Maybe a half a dozen kids in a room. One kid is it, the kid leaves the room. The rest of the kids, they hide. They hide the object. And when the kid comes in the room, the other kids say hot or cold. And by saying cold or hot, they let them know how close it is to the object. And so I call it the hot and cold game. How many of you played that game? Oh yeah, same background I had. So we're gonna play the game tonight. I'm in, I'm out of the room. I have no idea where the water bottle is, but you're gonna talk to me and we're gonna play the hot and cold game right now. Okay, so start talking to me. What am I here? Okay, talk to me. (audience murmuring) (audience murmuring) I'm burning up, aren't I? Now you see, I'm able to discover the desired object. Because when you say I'm hot, you tell me I'm very close to it. What I'm saying to you as a congregation and to many of you individually tonight is you're very close to receiving a miracle from God, very close. And the story of the kid, the kid, I will say is a junior high kid that has the lunch, the mother's fixed for him that day when he comes to here at Jesus, I think his name was Johnny. And he had another buddy, I think was a junior high with him and I think his name was Jimmy. Jimmy and Johnny to biblical southern names. (audience laughing) And as they're coming that day with their lunch, they have no idea what God is going to do through Johnny's life. He has no idea that God is going to use him one life to touch thousands of life. He has no idea the ripple effect that God is going to produce in his life. If he could hear the audible voice of God, while he's coming with the crowd, he would hear God's voice say to him, "Hey kid, kid, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, "you're hot, you're hot, you're real close "to seeing God do a miracle in your life." Now on the piece of paper, you have the breakdown of how biblical miracle works. When there is a need. As this Bible story opens and Jesus with his disciples comes across the hill and he sees this crowd, his heart breaks because they're like sheep without a shepherd and the story just absolutely jumps out of all of us and says there's a need here, a spiritual need, they're lost, they're confused, they need a leader, they need some security, they need some guidance, they need some help. The very story opens with a need just right in front of the eyes of Jesus and the disciples. A few hours later there's going to be a physical need because as he's teaching the people begin to be hungry and that's kind of where the story begins to take off. In my second pastor in Central Ohio, I went to a church that had been very plateaued very flat for 12 years. As a young pastor I thought how God, how can I increase their faith? They were people that just didn't expect much and were just settled in. And I felt that I should preach on miracles to help people really understand God and how he wanted to work in their lives. And so one Sunday I got up and said I'm gonna preach on all the miracles in the Bible and I had no clue how many that would be. I was just young, zealous, pastor. So I started in the Old Testament, Sunday morning, Sunday night we had two servers. I went to the Old Testament, I went to 14 months later. Now that's a rather long series. (congregation laughing) 14 months later, I'm finished with this series on miracles in the Bible and when I finished teaching on every miracle in the Bible, I asked myself a question, is there something that every miracle has in common? I mean, when you look at in the Old and New Testament, is there something that you can just say is true about every miracle in the Bible? And I came to the conclusion that there's one thing. One thing, that every miracle in the Bible has in common. Now, because you have great teaching here at the church or gateway, if I could come down off the platform and I could say, what do you have to do or have to receive a miracle from God, do you give me some great answers? Somebody would say real quickly, John, you gotta have faith. Boy, faith's important, isn't it? You can't even please God without faith. But I could show you people who received miracles from God that didn't have any faith at all. In fact, I'd show you people who received miracles from God, they were surprised. (audience laughing) What happened here? Woo! Are you with me? Somebody said, well, you had to pray. Well, that's prayer is huge. I could tell you people who never prayed and all the received miracles. Now, I'm not picking on disciples. I totally understand. I totally understand. Because when I have a prayer request, when I have a need, I'll get my pad of paper out and I'll get my pen out and I'll say, okay, God, here's my problem and I'll put my prayer requests across the top of the page. And then because God is so busy, many times I will offer suggestions of how he could answer my prayer. How many of you have ever done that? At least one time, today. (audience laughing) You know what I'm talking about, don't you, huh? And I'll say, God, here's my problem and Lord, you're very busy up. I'm gonna keep this simple, Lord. I think a three-step plan would be fine and here's one and here's the second thing. And it's like God's in heaven. And he's looking over and he's hearing my suggestions and he's going, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, slow down. (audience laughing) Oh, slow down, slow down, slow down. That is so good, that, here, here, please, please, please. Would you, could you repeat that for me one time? I, oh, yes, yes, why have I never thought of that? That is so awesome. (audience laughing) I have given hundreds of suggestions to God and he's not taking one yet. (audience laughing) You see, God doesn't want my suggestions. He doesn't want my ideas. He wants my involvement. We'll bring our needs to God. We'll say, okay, God, there's the need, there it is, Lord. There's the problem I have and then I love it, we'll give it to God and then we slip out as fast as we can. We kind of sneak away whether he's got it and we're over here and we kind of get kind of in safe distance. Then we turn around and we say, (clapping) Go ahead, God. Take care of that for me. You can do it. (audience laughing) You're the man. (audience laughing) And when he's slow, we'll try to be his chief cheerleader. Ah, yeah, we'll start singing songs to him. Boy, we'll sing and if singing songs to him doesn't work, we'll quote scripture to him. We'll say, God, God. You're able to do a scene. Come on, and we're going to ask for a fake. (audience laughing) It's like, doesn't, where did you hear that? (audience laughing) You see, we'll quote scripture, we'll sing songs. We'll do everything but what he wants. He wants our partnership. He wants our involvement. You see, most Christians don't want miracles. Most Christians want magic. (audience laughing) And God wants a partnership. God wants your lunch. My father, who has been an incredible mentor to me for many years, I've heard him say this hundreds of times, John, without God you cannot. Without you, God will not. It's a partnership. When you look at miracles in the Bible, one of the first things that you'll begin to discover is that when God is about to do a miracle, he involves people. Last week I was doing a teaching on John chapter two, The Turning of Water into Wine, first miracle of our Lord. And what did Mary say? Mary said, whatever he tells you, do it. And Jesus got the servants. He said, you know, put the water in the pot, so they got these big pots. They put the water in it and then of course the miracle happened. They brought it to the host and it says, the host couldn't figure it out. But the servants knew because they were involved in the process. Listen to me, my friend, my name is John. I am your friend. Listen to me very carefully. Never try to explain God until you first obey Him. Christians are educated way beyond the level of their obedience. Wow. He wants you to get involved. He wants the lunch. He looks at the disciples. He said, you give them something to eat. When there's a need sense by a few and each individual understands his responsibility, and gives us all regardless of the odds. Now, this is the second fragile part of the miracle. The giving regardless of the odds. When Jesus said, you give them something to eat, the disciples went in a panic. They went over to Judas. They said, June, talk to me how much money we got. He starts to get to calculate out. He's crunching numbers. He says, guys, we are in deep weeds. We don't have enough money. So they got the panic and you know the story, they go to the crowd. They go to the crowd and say, if you got something to eat, if you got some food in there, they're going to the crowd looking for food. Let's go back to Jimmy and Johnny. Jimmy watches these guys asking the crowd for food. He runs to his buddy, Johnny's Johnny. The guys that hang with Jesus, they're looking for food. And I'm telling you, I scouted the crown out and nobody planned ahead. And you're the only person in the crowd that has food. And I just want you to know, they're closing in on you. I think Johnny took his lunch and sat on it. I think he operated on the principle of squash lunches better than none at all. And I think there are two reasons why he had a hard time giving Jesus his lunch. Number one, it's hard to care for others when you're comfortable yourself. Out of 5,000 people, there was only one who didn't need a miracle from Jesus. It was the kid with the lunch. He didn't need a miracle. He already had his lunch. He already had his provisions taken care of. He didn't need God to do anything spectacular that day. He had his needs met. It's hard to care for others when you're comfortable yourself. I applaud you because as a congregation, you said, this is not enough. Not until every person is reached for Jesus Christ. Second reason I think he had a hard time giving up his lunch, the request made no sense at all. Hey kid, if you'll give your lunch to Jesus, here's his plan. He's gonna take it and put it in his hands. He's gonna pro over it and bless it and break it. And Sonny, we're gonna feed 5,000 people with that lunch. I think Johnny looked at Jimmy and said, what have those guys been smoking? (audience laughing) Robert, I wonder how many times in my life I've missed the best that God had for me because what he requested of me didn't make sense. And so I held onto the security of my lunch because I knew I had that instead of letting it go and trusting Jesus. If the kid were here today, what the kid would tell you is you can trust Jesus with your lunch. And he did. And you know the story. Everybody ate, baskets were left over. All the gospel writers stopped telling the story there. But I can tell you the story continues and since they didn't continue it, I will. That day Johnny went home. And when he pushed the screen door open, hey mom, I'm home, sweetheart, I'll be in the living room in a moment, just sit down there and Johnny sits down, producing his mom, comes in and says, sweetheart, tell me about your day. Home mother. And he begins to tell her the story, she says, oh wait, before we tell her, tell me about your day. Are there something as a mother? I've been worried about all day. What's that, mom? Well, you're just growing, you're in junior high and I put those furloughs and fish together and that little sack and gave it to you. And then Jimmy came over all of a sudden, I saw you guys running out towards Jesus and you had a little bit of food and as your mother, the thing that's bothering me all day. In fact, I have not gotten this off my mind. All day, sweetheart, can I ask you a question? When I packed your lunch today, did I give you enough food? Mom. Sit down. You know the lunch you gave me? Jesus taught for a while the people were hungry, there was no food. The disciples came and asked if I would give just those few loaves and fish to Jesus. And I, you know, mom, I did. And he blessed this lunch that you packed for me and 5,000 people, everybody had food because of the lunch, mom. And my mother says, Johnny, you have been lying again. No, no, no, call Jimmy, call Jimmy, he'll tell you. You see, the rest of his life, this kid, never forgot what Jesus did for him. You see, we talk about the miracle and whenever we talk about the miracle, we talk about the feeding of 5,000, and it was a wonderful miracle because 5,000 people were blessed. Let me just stop here, time out for a moment. One life, as you give and care and minister and do your part and get involved with this incredible work that God is doing in this congregation, there are gonna be tens of thousands of lives that are gonna be touched. And you're gonna have a tendency to think about the miracle of all those tens of thousands of people that are gonna be touched because of your faithfulness. But can I tell you something? While that is happening and that is a ripple effect, the greatest miracle is gonna be happening. The fact that you got involved and you gave your lunch and the biggest miracle that day was what happened to the kid. Wow. I promise you every day, every day, he thought about the day he gave Jesus his lunch. And when he got older and got married and he had kids about his age and they went to go to bed and they did the bedtime ritual, the parents do with their kids and they did their stuff and when the boy now that's the father sat down with his kids and he didn't tell them like regular bedtime stories. Oh, those are so weak, so lame. He said on the bedside, it's just sweetheart. When I was just about your age and the kids, his kids would roll their eyes and say, "Here comes the fish and chips story again, here comes the fish and chips, here comes the fish and chips." You better believe it every day. He told the fish and chips story because the miracle was not only those that received, but the miracle, the greatest miracle, was the one who gave one life, thousands touched in this congregation. As you take this faith journey together, God is gonna honor your commitment and God is honored gonna honor your faith and obedience and thousands will be touched, but the lives that will be changed the most are the people that are here because you're the ones who gave up your lunch and trusted Jesus with it. God bless you, thank you very much. You see, there's only one thing that every miracle in the Bible has in common. You see, every miracle, are you ready? Every miracle in the Bible begins with a problem. Whenever you see a miracle that God does, there it always starts with a problem. Now, I don't know what that does to you, but that is very encouraging to me because I have a lot of problems. Now get the picture, miracles begin with problems. Now I just flew in really late last night from Phoenix and saw I have no clue, but so I better do a little survey before I go on in this message. I'm going to assume, but maybe I shouldn't assume I'm gonna assume that you have problems. So how many would raise your hand and say, John, yes, I have, yes, I do. I have at least one problem in my life. Oh, thank you, boy, this is good. I'm among friends. How many of you would raise your head and say, John, I'm seated beside that problem right now? (audience laughing) You know that just raised your problem the second time? Hands the second time? You now you really have a problem. You understand that, don't you? You're just there. Now, here's what I want you to understand. Here's what I love. You see, miracles begin with problems and when we have problems, a lot of times we feel bad 'cause we got problems and I'm just here to tell you that if you have problems, this is a very good thing. Because if you have problems, you're a candidate for a miracle from God. In fact, the only people that can receive a miracle from God are people that have problems. So if you don't have a problem, you have a problem in. (audience laughing) Because, you see, if you don't have a problem, your problem is you don't have a problem and if you don't have a problem, you're not a candidate for a miracle. I don't know, Robert, what are we gonna do about that? Maybe at the end of the service, we can give an invitation like we've not given here gateway. We can ask people to come forward who have a problem and you and all they hands on it and we'll say, God, give them a problem because if you don't have a problem, you're not a candidate for a miracle. And the way it works is if you have a little problem, you're a candidate for a little miracle. If you have a medium-sized problem, you're a candidate for a medium-sized miracle. If you have a, I cannot believe I have this mess on my hands. You're a candidate for a huge miracle from God. How are we doing? Feeling a little better, aren't you, about your problems? In fact, just look at your neighbor and just say, thank God you've got problems. Go ahead and tell them. Thank God. Whoa, hey, look at him and say, you're a candidate for a miracle. You're a candidate for a miracle. If you've got problems, you're a candidate for a miracle. And the reason I'm teaching this about tonight and one life and where you are in your church and didn't you love the video and what's happening in your church in the past and what's going to happen in your church and the future and the land and the buildings and the millions and millions and millions of dollars. And I just want you to know. Your church has a big problem. I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, you're not a candidate at gateway for a little miracle. You don't need somebody to pave the parking lot. No, no, no, no, you are, you are, do you realize you're over your head? Look at your neighbor and say, we're way over our head. Go ahead and tell them that, we're way over head. Hey, and that's okay, don't worry about that because you see, it doesn't matter how deep it is if you're over your head. And all that means at gateway is you're setting your church up for an unbelievable, incredible, supernatural, historical, miracle for God. (audience applauding) When there's a need sensed by a few. Now, because I gotta get to the important part of the miracle, let me just stop here for a moment just the disciples sense the need. They came to Jesus, shared with him the problem. And I just stop here long enough to share with you that you don't need a majority of people to vote on a miracle for you. Where two or three are gathered together. That's where God is, are you with me? When there's a need sensed by a few. And each individual understands his responsibility. Now, I've rushed to this part of the miracle because if the miracle is gonna be lost, it's gonna be lost here on this phrase. Each individual understands his responsibility. See, the disciples had no clue. When they came to Jesus that day, and they wanted to tell him that the people were hungry and they had these suggestions for them, they had no clue that Jesus was going to respond like he did. They thought that he would fix the problem. In fact, what I love about the disciples, they not only thought he would fix the problem, they suggested how he could fix the problem. Excuse me, Lord, excuse me. Excuse me, folks, just a second. Lord, it's getting a little late, people are hungry. We've had a board meeting back here with the disciples. We think that you ought to have that benediction and let them go into Dallas and get a quarter pound of cheese on a sesame seed bun. You see, they were giving the Lord's suggestions on how to fix the problem, and he messed them up. He messed them up, he looked at them, and he said, "You give them something to eat." I promise you, as soon as he said, "You give them something to eat, "they wish they would have never brought up the problem." (congregation laughing) What? Lord, Lord, Lord, it's okay, it's okay. You know, Lord, sometimes we just ought to spend the day in prayer and fasting. (congregation laughing) It's amazing how spiritual Christians get when God wants to involve them. (congregation laughing) [ Laughter ]