John6:5-13

5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 6 He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. 9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. 12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.

It’s here that we see that part of Jesus plan is a call for us to:

• Participate

God’s plan for our problems includes our participation. When we place our inadequacies in His Hands He Provides. The boy with five loaves and two fish was the poorest of the poor, what he had was so far below the bare minimum of what was needed that Andrew considered it nothing. Yet his insufficient “nothing” fed everyone how, by exchanging hands. What is significant is not WHAT we have but WHO we have! We want to give out of our strengths, we feel some sense of pride about giving our best, about giving up what is really quite valuable, what we think “God needs.” Jesus taught us the truth about this  when He was at the temple, and he “looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins, equivalent to a penny. And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.’ (Luke 21.1-4). When we give out of abundance, we are tempted to imagine that we have enriched God. But God does not need our gifts; he is after our faith in his goodness. It is when we give out of our poverty, when all we have to give is totally inadequate, a mere penny, that we realize that it is God that is enriching us not us enriching Him. If the only thing you have to offer is a broken heart, offer your broken heart. Nothing I have, nothing I am will be refused by Jesus I simply need to give it to Him as the little boy gave Jesus his five loaves and two small fishes. You may ask like the disciples did ‘What good is that for such a large problem?’ But the use He makes of it is none of my business; it is His business, it is His blessing. So, this grief, this loss, this suffering, this pain this I can offer. In the exchange of hands I am brought to a greater recognition of who He is. This little boy lost his lunch; but ended up eating more than his fill. He gave everything and ended up with more. Math in God’s kingdom is different than we expect! It is common to be paralyzed by inadequacy, we hold back because our focus is on WHAT we have not WHO we have. If we wait until we have enough to give we will never open up our hands to God. We want much to offer before we offer anything. In a futile effort to get much, we grow discouraged and miss the joy of living for God. We miss the great workings of God because we are unwilling to accept the humility of giving what little we have, we hoard, hoping for enough to attempt a great work for God. I can give what I have because it’s not what I give but God’s miracle that changes the world.

• Provision

1. Involved Prayer

Jesus thanked God why because the provision is not just focusing on the problem but the provider. The provision reminds us that we not only have a provider but who that provider is, Jesus points us to the Father. Prayer reminds us of His Power and Position. Jesus multiples the food so that you will know that he alone is the way to the Father. The consistency between the Old and New Testament is the provider God. In the Old Testament when the people left Egypt during the Exodus God provided manna here He provides bread. When all is said and done the provision is so great that there are left overs. There is more to eat after all have eaten than there was before the first bite! Jesus is our provision He is the bread of life and the filling of the multitude is a testimony to the sufficiency of Christ. He not only fills but he fills to overflowing. Are you empty today do you need to be filled? Then come to Jesus the bread of life.

1. Involves the Disciples

Jesus provided the miracle and invited the disciples to participate in serving the food. Today we want involvement free miracles but serving the Savior is not a Spectator Sport!  The disciples were not just involved in serving but also in clean up. Serving means sharing what Jesus has done with others. Jesus wants us to serve He tested Philip and he got overwhelmed with what it would take to serve others. When we really count the cost its beyond what we can meet but not beyond what Jesus can do. Philip was involved in serving the baskets of food because He obeyed the Savior. If you want to serve you have to focus on the Savior and ignore self, when you do you will become overwhelmed with His power instead of the problem. We have become so self-seeking as a culture that very few actually serve. We have turned Christianity into what we can get instead of what we can give. Worship has become about how it affects me not how it glorifies God. We want His church designed to meet our needs not the LOST. We have replaced ministry with me.

• We say, “It’s impossible”; God says: “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
• We say, “I’m too tired”; God says: “I will give you rest.”
• We say, “Nobody really loves me”; God says: “I love you.”
• We say: “I can’t go on.” God says: “My grace is sufficient; my power is made perfect in weakness.”
• We say, “I can’t figure things out.” God says: “I will direct your steps.”
• We say, “I can’t do it.” God says: “You can do all things through Christ, who strengthens you.”
• We say, “It’s not worth it.” God says: “I am working all things together for your good.”
• We say, “I can’t forgive myself.” God says: “I forgive you.”
• We say, “I can’t manage.” God says: “I will supply every need according to my riches in glory.”
• We say, “I’m afraid.” God says: “Fear not, I am with you.”
• We say, “I’m worried.” God says: “Cast all your anxieties on me, for I care for you.”
• We say, “I’m not smart enough.” God says: “I give you the wisdom of my son, Jesus, and his righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
• We say, “I feel all alone.” God says: “I will never leave you or forsake you.”

So who are you trusting in today, is it self or the Savior?

John 6:1-4

After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. 2 A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. 3 Then Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. 4 (It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration.)

Mark 6:35-36

35 Late in the afternoon his disciples came to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. 36 Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.”

John6:5-13

5 Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he asked, “Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 6 He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”8 Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. 9 “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?”10 “Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. 12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” 13 So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.

It’s here that we discover the:

• Plan –

What we need to understand is that the plan to solve any problem starts with what you determine the problem to be! What we discover is that because there are two different views to the problem there are two different plans, man’s plan and the Masters plan.

Man’s view–  As people we tend to look at the external, the outside. What the disciples saw was a hunger problem and so they wanted to send the people away so they could meet their own need. The twisted part of this was that because the people had a problem the disciples started to view the problem as the people. We do this all the time, we view people as the problem not the problems that the people have. And because we view people as the problem we will always want to send them away.

Jesus view  – Instead of looking at the outside Jesus looks inside. He sees the internal problem, which is a heart problem not just a hunger problem.

Man’s plans – Your fix for the problem will be tied to your focus. If you are focused on the external problems your plan will be external. As a result their first plan involved

1. Ignoring the problem by making it someone else’s

They tell Jesus to send the crowd away. How often do we ignore the problem because we don’t make it personal. We try to send the problem away because we think that we don’t have to deal with it. Sadly, this mentality encompasses the majority of our prayer life. Often when we are faced with the problems of humanity instead of using prayer to engage the problem we use prayer as a way to procrastinate so we don’t have to face the problem, when there is a need – “let me pray about that.” Their attitude is, Jesus just send the problem away, because we would rather side step it than deal with it! When that doesn’t work they:

2. Try to meet it with their inadequate resources

Philip turns an emptiness problem into an economic one. Why because we believe if we had more money we would have less problems. This is the world’s philosophy not the Words. More money does not equal less problems. What people need is not money it’s the Messiah. It’s here that Andrew steps up and brings a boy to Jesus who has 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. Our resources are not just small and insignificant, but Barley was the grain of the poorest and the despised; in fact, it was considered fit only for animals. Jesus brings his disciples to the point where they must confess that the resources they have are incomparably small compared to the need which they face.  Even with the advantage of having grown up in the area and these being their stomping grounds near Bethsaida, Philip and Andrew still come up short. We will all come to this point in our lives, where what we have is not enough and we finally realize how much we need Jesus. In our marriages we begin marriage thinking that we can live in harmony and peace. That we can give our spouse what they wanted and get the good we deserve. But our resources are inadequate for the demands of living with a sinful and selfish person. In our parenting we thought we could raise our children to be self-sufficient, happy, self-confident and safe. But try as you might, your resources are incomparably small compared to the needs which parenting demands. In our personal lives, we thought that we couldhandle the emotional stress of life. You thought you were strong and stable and could handle the pressure, but circumstances have brought you to the end of your rope. Maybe it is spiritually that you have discovered your inadequacies, you wonder what you are living for, “What is my purpose?” The questions are too hard, the only rest seems to come from remaining so busy that you do not have to think. You may feel strong and invincible today, but we will all be brought face-to-face with our limits and the truth that we need more than our resources we need a Redeemer. The truth is that we are bankrupt, broke and our bread is a poor substitute for what Jesus has. It’s here that we come to:

Jesus plan

He saw the problem not as the people but as the emptiness of a hungering humanity, so He met the need by feeding and filling the emptiness. The people were not the problem if they had sent them away the hunger problem would still have been there, just hidden out of sight. We can’t remove the problem by hiding it we have to bring Jesus in to fill it. Whose view are you looking at problems through, God’s or mans? Whose plan are you pursuing God’s or yours?