Read

---

How Many Loaves Do You Have? Rich Nathan December 9, 2012 Advent: Questions Jesus Asks Mark 6:30-44

Have you ever encountered a need that was bigger than the resources that you had? Our community center employs a social worker named Christine Childers. And like many social workers, she regularly encounters people whose needs are overwhelming. Chris wrote me this note: Back in September I had the amazing privilege of meeting with a young lady who was in crisis. She came to the church not sure what to expect and not knowing if the church could help at all. It became clear that her needs were much bigger than what the church could possibly address. And, frankly, I wasn’t sure if community resources could realistically help her. This young lady was a new member of Vineyard Columbus who was working hard to overcome many years of addiction. She was growing in her relationship to Christ and was trying to put the pieces of her life back together. She was living in the basement of a dear friend with her children and needed to find other housing. She had just secured a part-time job, but due to years of drug abuse and poor decisions she was left with prior evictions and over $1000 in past utility bills. We talked about various church groups and possible community resources, but I had to acknowledge the housing situation was tough and there were no realistic options. We decided to pray. Have you ever encountered needs that were simply bigger than the resources you had? I’ve been going down to our Northside Food Pantry right off of Morse Road on Cleveland Avenue about once a month on Saturday morning with my granddaughter, Naomi. There are a few reasons why I try to get down to the food pantry on a regular basis. Marlene and I are raising our granddaughter and we want her to grow up sensitive to the needs of the poor. It is easy to grow up in one of our suburban neighborhoods and never really connect with the poor. So I want Naomi to grow up with sensitivity towards those who don’t have. I want her to be a kind and generous person who when she gets resources in the future, doesn’t think that everything she has belongs to her, but that she is generous to the poor. Another reason why I go is not because of my granddaughter, Naomi. It is because of me. It is because going to the food pantry is good for my soul. You see, I live in a middle-class bubble. I have a nice house; I have two cars and health insurance. The biggest problem that I have regarding food is that I eat too much and I need to watch

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

1

my weight. But I have heat in my home and I get to go on vacation. So it is good for my soul to be near to people regularly who are experiencing extreme needs. If you haven’t been to the food pantry, folks gather and at our two pantries we actually cook breakfast for everyone who comes. So there are about 150 people who are there with their kids eating pancakes, talking with folks from the Vineyard. After they have a meal, there is an opportunity for them to receive groceries based on the size of their family. And Vineyard folks carry the groceries out to people’s cars, or pack them up so that they can carry them on the bus or on a bicycle. And we offer to pray for them. This past weekend I carried the groceries out for a woman who was obviously struggling in life. Her car was a mess. I said to her, “Can I pray for you? Do you have any family needs, or health needs, or work needs?” She said, “Well…” And pointed to her little boy who was 4-years old in the backseat and said, “Well he’s got mental illness and I’ve got another son who’s got autism.” And then she listed off a bunch of health concerns and she was out of work. I prayed for another man who had some skin problems. I asked him, “What can I pray for you for? What do you need to have God do for you?” He said, “Well, I’m disabled; I’m out of work. We’re struggling financially. But the real thing is that I’ve got two children who have autism.” If you go down to our food pantries, or to some of the other ministries we have in our community, you will realize that for many, many people life is so hard. A woman recently wrote to me and said that her husband is facing throat cancer. Her son is a drug addict. There were numerous other trials going on in her life. Have you ever faced needs in someone else, or in yourself that were simply way beyond your resources, your strategies, your capacity to solve them? Have you ever faced problems that you couldn’t fix? Maybe a long-term progressive disease in yourself or in a loved one? A marital problem that try as you might didn’t get resolved? Mental illness? A relational conflict that just goes on and on? We’re in the season of Advent which in the Christian calendar refers to the four Sundays before Christmas. The Advent series that I’m doing is titled Questions That Jesus Asked. Last week we saw that Jesus is a master questioner. If you read through the gospel accounts of Jesus, he is always asking someone a question. Jesus even has the maddening habit of responding to a question with a question – question after question after question. He asked questions to force us to think, to push us out of our comfort zones, to stretch us to more deeply consider where we’re at and what we want. The question that I would like to tackle today comes from a story of Jesus multiplying loaves and fishes. The question is simply this:

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

2

How Many Loaves Do You Have? Let’s pray. Mark 6:30-44 30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” 32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. 35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take almost a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” 39 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. 41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. 42 They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. Now this miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes is the only miracle apart from the resurrection that appears in all four of the gospels. The miracle was the multiplication of five small loaves of bread and a couple of fish. The loaves weren’t actually loaves as we think about them – like loaves of Wonder Bread. They were actually more like small pancakes or pita bread, little flat cakes of bread that would have been cooked on a stone. Somehow Jesus miraculously multiplied these five little flat cakes of bread and two little fishes so that there was enough food to feed not only 5000; 5000 is the count of the men. Here is what we read in v. 44: Mark 6:44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. But Jesus multiplied food miraculously so that there was enough for 20,000 or 25,000 people! This is a genuine miracle. The miracle is not as some people have

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

3

naturalistically interpreted the story, especially in its version in John 6, that Jesus got a little boy to share his lunch and everyone else saw and were inspired by his act of generosity and they began sharing their lunches and what we had was the first church potluck. One person shared her famous tuna casserole; another shared her Jell-O surprise. This was a miracle. Jesus took five little pancakes and multiplied them so that there was enough bread to feed 20,000-25,000 people until they were all stuffed on bread and fish. The miracle didn’t just take place in the hearts of people causing folks to be generous. The miracle took place out in the real world. The story is about God directly, clearly, miraculously intervening in this world. Jesus asked in this story in v. 38: Mark 6:38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” What the disciples had was clearly insufficient for the need - 25,000 people and five little pita breads. And when you look at your own situation and you count up what you have and what you have is clearly insufficient – you just have a few little loaves and a couple of little fishes – and it is clearly not enough to meet the overwhelming need of someone who comes to you, or to meet your own overwhelming need. When your resources, your strategies, your smarts, your plans, your social skills, your bank account is not enough, then what you need in that moment is a miracle from God – plain and simple. Christine, our social worker, who met with that new Christian who came out of a history of addiction and who had no place to live because of her bad credit history and overwhelming utility bills and all of that, what Christine our social worker and that woman needed was a miracle from God. The story is told because I think it communicates so plainly to us how miracles happen in this world. We see first of all that miracles begin in the heart of Jesus, vv. 30-34: Mark 6:30-34 30 The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. 31 Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” 32 So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. 33 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

4

Miracles begin in the heart of Jesus Let me give you the context of this miracle. Jesus’ cousin, John, who was called John the Baptist, had just been murdered by Herod, who was the immoral ruler of the Holy Land at the time. And so Jesus is grieving the loss of his cousin, who was a young man, 30 years old, in the prime of his life, with a huge ministry, killed by an evil king. What do you feel like doing when you’re grieving? Most people desire to hide away, to be alone, and to withdraw. Jesus had just suffered a trauma; he had just received the news that his cousin had been murdered; you’re next. But when he slips away to be quiet and alone, the crowds discovered where he was and they thronged around him. And his reaction to the crowds was not frustration; it wasn’t anger. Here is what we read in v.34: Mark 6:34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. The sorrow that he felt over John, the sorrow that he may have felt for himself, was translated into sorrow for the crowds around him. He became a conduit of the kindness of God for his disciples, who were tired, and for the crowds who had overwhelming needs. Now, this story contains so many allusions to Psalm 23, the best loved and most famous of the Psalms, the one that begins: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. Who is Jesus? Verse 34 said Jesus had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus came to be the Shepherd of Israel. It is a very intimate and personal metaphor for the care and provision and protection and guidance that the Lord gives to those who turn to him in faith. But it is not just that Jesus is the Shepherd. Psalm 23 says: The Lord is my Shepherd… You can have a personal relationship with Jesus. Christianity is not just a religion, it is a relationship between an individual and Jesus, who is alive.

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

5

I read a story about a little boy who was dying from a brain tumor. He was very afraid. His mother used to read to him Psalm 23 by his hospital bed and taught the little boy to hold up his five fingers… The Lord is my Shepherd. …and when he got to the word “my” on his ring finger, to hold that finger with his other hand which communicated to that little boy that that was the way the Lord holds you. One day his mom came into his room and the little boy had died. She looked down at his hands and his right hand was grasping his left finger. The Lord is MY Shepherd. Do you know this for yourself, friend? Can you grasp your ring finger and say, “Yes. God is not just out there somewhere on Mars.” There are so many allusions to Psalm 23 in this story. The Good Shepherd meets our needs. He restores the sheep. He has them lie down in green pastures. Jesus has the men sit down on green grass. We don’t start miracles. Miracles begin in the heart of Jesus. Second, Miracles happen when we become aware of a need Mark 6:35-36 35 By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. 36 Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” In this case, the disciples became aware of the lateness in the day and the fact that the people hadn’t eaten that day. Now, understand that the need that you are experiencing doesn’t have to be great or overwhelming. There is another story of a miraculous feeding of a crowd just a couple of chapters later in Mark 8. In that story Jesus feeds 4,000 people. And in the feeding of the 4,000 the need was extreme. The people hadn’t eaten for three days. They were out in the wilderness. But here in Mark 6 and the feeding of the 5,000, it’s just been a day and there are villages near them where they could get some food. So often, friends, we carry burdens on our shoulders that we think are too small to bother God with. “Oh, this is no big thing. It’s not like the situation of the people who are living in Syria right now. I’m not going to bother God for help with my term paper, or wisdom concerning who I should hire at my job, or assistance with raising my child.” When you become aware of a need, small or big, ask God. So many of the ministries here at Vineyard Columbus began in the heart of Jesus and then Jesus shared his heart with a member of our church, who decided to do something

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

6

to meet the need. Debra Petermann has led our ministry to people with disabilities for the last 18 years. She’s done it on a volunteer basis. I want to share with you her story. She said: I spent 34 years without God because my family was left out of church primarily because of my brother’s disability. We didn’t fit in…anywhere! My parents took turns going to church and then gave up on that when Rodney’s behavior got increasingly worse. My grandmother brought my sister and me to church until she died and then we lost our ride and never returned. When I grew up, I got involved at Vineyard. I took my daughters to playgrounds where I would meet other parents and noticed that some of their children had special needs. I knew that I couldn’t invite them to our church because our church wasn’t prepared for them. I continued to pray about my own calling asking the Lord: “What do you want me to do with my life?” Every time I prayed the Lord would show me the same picture of Rodney as a little boy who was non-verbal and autistic. Only Rodney was at church and he was in a Sunday School class with other children. One day I was at a playground and I had another opportunity to invite a family to church. But their child wouldn’t easily “fit” in the kids’ program because of his disability. This went on for about 2 months. I finally asked God for a sign – what do you want me to do, Lord? I said, “Lord, if this is really what you want me to do, I need a Christian curriculum that is geared for children with developmental disabilities. Three days later I went to my foot doctor, who was a Christian, and I picked up a Moody Monthly Magazine from the floor. I opened up to a story titled, “Under His Wings – How to Teach Multi-Handicapped Children About God.” Sitting there in that doctor’s office with my socks off, I surrendered and said “yes” to God. I voluntarily led the Bridge Builders Disability Ministry for over 18 years at Vineyard Columbus. Because of the ministry, families can come to church together, parents can sit together, siblings can hang out with their friends, and folks with disabilities can worship and learn about Jesus at our church. What if I had said “no?” Look what I would have missed. You know, God often uses our own experiences of pain to make us aware of an overwhelming need that exists in the lives of others. Let me share with you one more story. Kevin Brown has led our after-school program called The Zone for about 10 years. Kevin said that his grandparents had him in church every week while he was growing up. He wrote this:

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

7

Our family was poor, but God took care of us. Our family of 14 brothers and sisters was raised by a single mom; but we learned to work hard and work together for our family. I began attending Bowling Green State University. Two years into college, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away. My two youngest brothers (ages 12 and 14) were taken into foster care. I left school to gain custody of them and raise them. In search of work to provide for us, I moved to Columbus in 1983. I remembered what my grandmother taught me: God will help and provide for us. I worked with Columbus Parks and Recreation for a time. Through this job, I meet a lot of kids in the community who were going through struggles that mirrored my childhood. My passion for working with youth in the community began to grow. After becoming employed at Vineyard Columbus, church leaders began to affirm the call on my life to work with youth in our community. The apartment complex next door to the church had a lot of struggling families, and the church was beginning to build relationships with them. Some of their kids were beginning to come to the church. While some people wanted to keep them out, church leaders sought to create a place for them to be welcomed at the church. Leaders recognized the call on my life and offered me the job of directing the Zone After-School program. The Zone initially was a place for kids to come, hang out, and play basketball. The program began to offer tutoring, mentoring, homework assistance, and other services to kids and their families. I began building relationships with local school districts. I was pleasantly surprised to be welcomed in the public schools. God opened the door for the Zone to partner with schools to help the kids. The Zone started with about a dozen kids, me, a few part-time helpers, and some volunteers. It has now grown to have 80-100 kids every day after school, 400 kids in the summer, and a full staff. Only God could have put the pieces into place to provide for all these kids. But you know, the awareness of need is not just the awareness out there of other people’s needs. Often the need is our own need and often it is not just physical, it is also spiritual. There is a hilarious movie titled Planes, Trains and Automobiles. John Candy and Steve Martin play two unlikely companions trying to get home by any and all means by Thanksgiving. John Candy plays this good-hearted, overly talkative, clumsy shower curtain ring salesman who unintentionally keeps sabotaging Steve Marin’s attempts to

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

8

get home. In one scene John Candy inadvertently sets a car they are diving on fire by his cigarette. It is a totally burned out wreck, but it still manages to move. As they drive along the highway in this still smoking wreck, they’re pulled over by the police who inspect the car and ask Candy: “You feel this vehicle is safe for highway travel?” Candy answers: “Yes I do – its not pretty, but it’ll get you where you wanna go… The officer is not impressed. Often we are like that – we have no real sense of self awareness, of just what a wreck we are. A car’s capacity to move doesn’t make it road-worthy. God asks us, “Do you think you are fit for the Kingdom of God?” Yes, I do. Miracles of salvation happen when we become aware of our need Let me give you a little illustration. Despite the fact that bankruptcy is becoming so much more common in America in the last 15 years than it ever had been – there are millions of people who have filed for bankruptcy – there is still a note of shame for most folks concerning bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means failure. It means insolvency. It’s the inability to pay your debts. It is not something that anyone is really proud of. You don’t hear boys one-upping their friends saying, “Oh yeah, well maybe your dad can beat up my dad, but my dad has just declared bankruptcy.” Now bankruptcy can be used not only to talk about someone’s financial state, but also about their spiritual state. In fact, the Apostle Paul describes all of us as being spiritually bankrupt when he says in Romans 3:10-12: Romans 3:10-12 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. 12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Paul was talking about spiritual bankruptcy. Usually when someone declares bankruptcy, they have a few assets that can be sold to pay a little money to their creditors. But the Bible says that everything that you and I have is worthless to God. You can’t make a partial payment on the debt you owe to God. Even our righteous acts, the Bible says, are filthy rags in God’s sight according to the book of Isaiah. All of us are spiritually bankrupt. We owe a debt that we don’t have the resources to pay. So salvation comes to us as a gift as an act of sheer grace from God. We have to stop trying to pay our debts off before God and turn in faith to Jesus Christ for salvation. But salvation starts by us acknowledging before God our spiritual bankruptcy.

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

9

Let me expand on this for just a moment, if I may. There are two kinds of bankruptcies that a company can declare. A company can declare a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Under a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy the court temporarily prohibits creditors from going after the assets of a company. It gives the debtor corporation some time to get it’s affairs in order, to reorganize, to bring in new management. And after it’s gone through reorganization, it comes out the other end of bankruptcy and pays off its debts. Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is what you might call a temporary bankruptcy. And then there is Chapter 7 Bankruptcy which is permanent bankruptcy. Everything in the company is liquidated and the company is declared insolvent, unable to pay its debts. The business has no future; it’s no longer viable. The company is finished; it’s all over. The business closes its doors and dies. Now, what kind of bankruptcy do you think most people declare before God – Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, temporary bankruptcy, or Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, permanent bankruptcy? What do you think most people think they need, a little reorganization, a little relief through self-improvement? I will come to God for temporary relief and then God will fix me up and I will go on my way. Or liquidation, going out of business – permanent bankruptcy? I think most people don’t understand the depth of their need, and so they’re coming to Jesus Christ which lasts only a little while until the crises pass. Most people come to God declaring Chapter 11, temporary bankruptcy. We have a sense of need; we’re under pressure; life’s piled up beyond what we can manage. We’re in crisis and so we turn to Christ. And often we experience some relief. And then having experienced relief, we say thank you, God, and we begin to live independently again. We don’t understand the depth of the problem. So we never see the ongoing need for God’s continuing grace in our lives. Monday morning when you wake up and say to yourself before God, “Today, I am spiritually bankrupt. I need your grace in my life.” Tuesday morning, “I am spiritually bankrupt. I need your grace in my life.” Wednesday morning, “I am spiritually bankrupt here God, I need your grace in my life.” Thursday morning, Friday morning, Saturday morning – I’ve gone out of business. I’m not relying on myself. The firm called Rich Nathan, or the firm called by your name, is dead. You can’t produce what you need to achieve right standing with God. And that’s not just a temporary thing, it’s a permanent thing. You need God’s grace. Miracles happen and miracles of salvation happen when we become aware of our need and the dept of our need. Miracles happen in the face of impossibilities Let’s read Mark 6:37-38:

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

10

Mark 6:37-38 37 But he answered, “You give them something to eat.” They said to him, “That would take almost a year’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?” 38 “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.” When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.” Jesus asked, “How many loaves do you have?” What they had was utterly insufficient. The disciples heard Jesus say: You give them something to eat. They took out their pencils and did a rough calculation of the size of the crowd and the amount of food that would be required to feed everyone. They said they would need a year’s wages. We don’t have that kind of money; it’s utterly impossible. We can’t feed them. It can’t be done. All of us have our own list of impossibilities. Let me ask you, friend: What’s impossible for you? The healing of your marriage? You say impossible. The healing of your child? The fixing of your financial situation? The healing of a long-destroyed relationship? A ministry need that you see, but there’s just no way that that ministry could ever happen? What do you say that for you is impossible? Can’t happen, no way? Consider for a moment, God who spoke the stars into existence, the one who flung the galaxies out so that they’re still in motion after billions of years. Consider Jesus, who turned tap water into wine, and who raised a little girl from the dead, who touched a man who was covered with leprosy and the man was instantly healed. And you say to God: “Impossible? No way? Can’t happen?” As the Lord said to Abraham in Genesis 18:14: Genesis 18:14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? And as the Angel Gabriel said to the Virgin Mary the words that became the State motto for the State of Ohio. With God all things are possible. Never say: Impossible. Can’t happen. With God all things are possible. Miracles require our participation We want God to speak into existence from heaven a conversion of our spouse, or from heaven a healing, or the restoring of a broken marriage, or the reconciliation of a broken relationship, or the cleansing and healing of a broken past. We want God to

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

11

intervene from heaven and do it himself. Send your miracle from heaven directly down, Lord. We want God to deal with the crime issue in our city: Stop crime, Lord. Cause young men in our city to stop being so violent. Take care of all the gangs. Please stop drug use, Lord, in our city. Make young men responsible for the children they father. Stop child abuse. Fix our broken schools, Lord. Turn children in our city into responsible young adults. Oh Lord, there are so many people who are out of work, pleas supply jobs for folks. Set men and women free from their drug addictions. Save strippers who are working in local clubs. Save women from lives of prostitution. Oh Lord, there are so many problems in the world. Billions of people don’t know Christ. Change our world, Lord. Give us peace. Give us security. We pray these various prayers and the Lord says: You go do it and I will be with you. See, Christianity is not a spectator sport. It is a participatory sport. But in the Bible we often see that God’s miracles require our participation. The priests in the book of Joshua actually had to step into the Jordan River before the River parted and the people were able to walk through into the Promised Land. They actually had to get down and have the River lapping around their feet before God worked a miracle. God didn’t just knock the walls of Jericho down from heaven. He required the people to march around the walls of Jericho once a day for six days – just a crazy thing. Why are we marching without attacking? What kind of military plan is this? Let’s get the battering ram. Let’s get the catapult. Or Let’s just hold a prayer meeting and ask God to do it and then on the 7th day, God required the people to march around the city seven times. Talk about the need to persevere in faith. What is God going to do? Then on the 7th time they were to blow trumpet blasts and then the walls came down. God’s miracles often require our participation and faith. I don’t know how you picture the feeding of the 5000. Perhaps you picture Jesus taking the five pancakes and two pickled herrings and blessing it and suddenly there are dump trucks full of bread and fish. And Jesus says, “Peter, jump in that truck and back her up that hill and feed the left flank of the army over there. Just come on, back her up.” Peter dumps the bread on everyone and there is a mad scramble. Andrew comes along and dumps the herring on them. But I don’t think that is the way it happened. It is real clear in Mark 6:41: Mark 6:41 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all.

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

12

He gave the disciples a little piece of bread and a little piece of fish and sent them up the hill and said, “Now, go feed those 400 people over there, Andrew. Peter, you feed those 500 up there.” Peter looked at the bread and the fish and probably said to himself, “this is crazy. I mean those guys are hungry. They are fishermen. I know what they’re like; they are hungry. They are going to tear me limb from limb.” He looks at the bread and is trying to figure it out: Well, maybe if I tear it, I can give it to that big guy over there first. Why does Jesus have me do these crazy things? This is embarrassing. He gets up the hill. He is obeying God. He gets up the hill and starts to tear off a little piece of bread and it starts multiplying in his hands. Peter goes, “Wow – did you see that?” He tears off another piece and there is more bread. He starts tearing off more pieces and starts ripping up the fish and they are multiplying. I believe that the miracle happened through the hands of the disciples. It required their participation and faith. I don’t think Jesus suddenly made 20,000 loaves of French bread and 1000 gallons of pickled herring. The disciples had to actually do something. They needed to step out in faith. You see a great need, but you don’t know what to do? You can pray. God has been speaking to me so much about my need to pray more to see his miracle-working power. I got myself a little pad about a month ago and I’ve been writing in the little pad lists of people and ministries that I need to pray for, so I won’t forget. Friends who have lost a spouse. People whose families have collapsed. People who are in danger of losing their children in pregnancy. Couples who are infertile. I don’t know what to do for them, but I can pray. As the great spiritual writer, Richard Foster, who is, by the way, coming to our church next Spring for a conference, said: If we truly love people, we will desire for them far more than it is within our power to give them and this will lead us to prayer. Intercession is our way of loving others. Miracles manifest God’s extravagant grace Mark 6:42-44 42They all ate and were satisfied, 43 and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. 44 The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand. They not only had enough bread, but there was food left over. Extravagance, that’s what God is like. The Lord says, “Abraham, I’m calling you to follow me. No guarantees, but listen, after you’ve left your home, you’re going to encounter my extravagance.”

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

13

Genesis 15:5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Over and over again the Bible says we serve a “much-more” God. I love that phrase “much-more.” It speaks to me about God’s generosity. In answer to prayer, God is generous by giving us much more than any human being would give us including our own families and our own fathers. This is what Jesus says in Matthew 7:11: Matthew 7:11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! I started with the story of Christine Childers, our social worker here at our community center, who met a young lady, who was in crisis. The young lady was a member of the Vineyard and new to Christ. She was working hard to overcome years of addiction, but the hole that she had dug was too big. She was living in a basement of a dear friend with her children, but she needed to find other housing. She had just a part-time job and had prior evictions on her record and owed over a $1000 in past utility bills. This young woman’s needs were way beyond anything Christine could do, way beyond the resources available in the community. But they weren’t way beyond God. They weren’t way beyond God’s extravagant grace. They weren’t way beyond the God for whom nothing is impossible. So Chris and this young woman knelt down and they prayed. Within a few days a church member emailed me with an opening of one of his rental apartments and asked if I knew of anyone that he could bless with an apartment (this rarely happens). I referred three families to him. The young woman was the only one who actually met with him. She decided to be completely honest with him and shared her story. The landlord decided to take a chance on her and held the apartment for her until the end of October giving her time to work and save up for her deposit and first month’s rent. Lindsay started her new job believing she would work part-time, but miraculously she was asked to increase her hours to full-time. We started exploring ways to get the utility bill paid down. She qualified for a communitybased program that put her on a budget based on her income and allowed the utilities to be turned-on in her name. But she had to pay $300 in connection fees. Her car broke down and she needed to use her deposit money to fix the car.

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

14

She became discouraged. I reminded Lindsay of how the Lord had so extravagantly opened doors for her and was putting the pieces of her life back together. I encouraged her to keep praying and so we prayed. I just knew that the Lord would make a way for Lindsay. Because Lindsay had been faithful in following up on everything we asked of her and because Lindsay was involved in a small group here at Vineyard Columbus, our Benevolence Ministry was able to assist her with the utility fees. Another ministry blessed her with her rental deposit. This young woman and her children moved into her apartment the last weekend in October with no furniture. We had no solution for that. But then an estranged family member, totally out of the blue, purchased and delivered to her apartment brand new beds. Without her asking, we were able to nominate her for Vineyard Christmas For Kids. Just this week I received an email from Lindsay giving me a brief update and testifying to God’s faithfulness and his extravagant grace! This Advent Jesus turns to you and says, “How many loaves do you have?” You look and you say, “Not enough, Lord. Not enough for this need. But Lord, you are generous. You’ve got bread enough to meet this need with bread left over. You are a giving and generous God. With you, nothing is impossible!” Let’s pray.

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

15

How Many Loaves Do You Have? Rich Nathan December 9, 2012 Advent: Questions Jesus Asks Mark 6:30-44 I.

Miracles begin in the heart of Jesus (Mk 6:30-34)

II.

Miracles happen when we become aware of a need (Mk 6:35, 36) A. Miracles of salvation happen when we become aware of our own need

III.

Miracles happen in the face of impossibilities (Mk 6:37, 38)

IV.

Miracles require our participation (Mk 6:39-41)

V.

Miracles manifest God’s extravagant grace (Mk 6:42-44)

© 2012 Rich Nathan | VineyardColumbus.org

16