Putting Ouselves in God's Hands

Introduction:

It's been awhile since I was in school, but I still remember those dreaded words, "Take out a pencil and a piece of paper." It was pop quiz time, and it amazed me that the teacher seemed to know the nights I had not studied.

I'm not going to ask you to take out a pencil and sheet of paper, but I do want to give a test. What one miracle of Jesus is recorded in all four Gospels?

Out of over 30 miracles that we have record of, only one is included by all four Gospel authors—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Which one do you think it was?

The raising of Lazarus from the dead? What a sight that must have been that day in Bethany as Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb. He had been dead for four days, which in Jewish terms meant he was as dead as dead could be. But Jesus called, "Lazarus, come out!" and out Lazarus came, still wrapped in his burial clothes.

This was a great miracle, but it's not the one in all four Gospels.

What about Jesus walking on the water? That must have been a startling sight, and it said to the early church that this Jesus is the Lord of the land, the sea, and everything.

Walking on the water was a marvelous miracle, but it's not the answer to our question.

Some of us might say that answer is the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda. For 38 years he had struggled to get his broken body to the pool, and in an instant Jesus touched and healed him.

This miracle was a powerful reminder that hopelessness is not a word in the Christian vocabulary. But again this is not the right answer on our quiz.

The one miracle recorded in all four Gospels; the one miracle that the early church never forgot, was the feeding of the multitude with the loaves and fish. This miracle is also known as the "miracle of the five loaves and two fish".

They remembered because on one level it reminded them that Jesus was the Bread of life.

Here were people physically hungry, and Jesus gave them bread.

But what about the other hunger?

The hunger of the spirit.

The hunger for meaning.

The hunger to find something filling in a world of empty promises and broken dreams.

The search was over!

The Messiah has come!

Jesus is the Bread of life!

This is a miracle about Jesus as the answer to those deep hungers of our spirit.

But it is also a miracle about what Jesus can do when we dare to put what we are in His hands.

Here were these early Christians with what seemed like so little in the face of such great opposition.

Surely there were times when they wanted to give up and say the task was too big.

And then they would read what Jesus did that day on the Galilean hillside, and those followers of Christ would remember that a little becomes a lot in the Master's hands.

Lets read it together from Mark’s Gospel

Mark 6:35–44 KJV 1900

35 And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him, and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed: 36 Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread: for they have nothing to eat. 37 He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they say unto him, Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat? 38 He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. 39 And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. 40 And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. 41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. 42 And they did all eat, and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes. 44 And they that did eat of the loaves were about five thousand men.

To me the whole key to what Jesus can do with our lives lies in Mark 6:41 “41 And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all.”

Three elements are necessary for our lives to be transformed.

Bringing.—"And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes”

Jesus took what was brought to Him, and in His hands the miracle happened.

What we become depends on that step of faith of bringing all of who we are to all that we know of Christ.

When John told the story, he said that a little boy was the only one who brought his lunch that day.

I have three sons who are very concerned about lunches, meals, food in general and I can imagine that conversation that day of how the boy bargained for a huge lunch with sandwiches, and fruit snacks, and deserts and more.

Finally the Mother says, “Son all we have are a few loaves and fish” I’m sure he was dissappointed but he was going to see Jesus and that would have to do.

Regardless of how the bread and fish got to Jesus, they were put in His hand. It was the bringing of all that was available.

Not some of the fish or one of the loaves, but all that they had, as little as it seemed, was put in the Master's hand.

William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was once asked the secret of his spiritual power. He responded, "Jesus Christ has always had all of me there is to have." That is the secret!

The willingness to get ourselves out of our hands and into the hands of Christ.

As I look out on our congregation I see what some of you have brought to the church.

A quick perusal of the Bible you see what many others brought to Jesus - and it wasn’t a nice neat sack lunch

Leprosy

Blindness

Devil Possession

Lameness

Injured or maimed hands

Death

We all come to see Christ, and we all bring a multi- tude of terrors, temptations, and unsurrendered tal- ents.

Back in the later 70’s a young couple with four young kids maybe 5 on the wrong side of the tracks in Winfield, MO - tensions were high, their marriage was on the rocks, and the fights and battles were turning more physical. Bitterness and darkness lived in that little house.

One day a revival came to the neighboring town of Foley and the evangelist and pastor came knocking on their door - the couple went to see Jesus bringing all they had with them - and OH WHAT A DIFFERENCE

Earlier last year that husband - my Dad faced a very real and scary heart attack and yet God was right there with him - He had given his heart to God and God was right there with him.

I come to worship, and I bring myself, and the challenge for us is to find the courage to trust ourselves to His hands.

That is not easy. It certainly was not easy for those first disciples.

They looked at the problem— 5,000 men, plus women and children.

They looked at the possibilities—five loaves and two fish,

they concluded that the people needed to be sent home before they had a riot on their hands.

What they failed to factor in was the power of Jesus.

The same disciples who had already seen miracles such as the raising of Jairus's daughter and the calming of the storm were so overwhelmed that they forgot what can happen when life is put in the hands of Christ.

A little girl had learned her multiplication tables through 12 x 12. She raced home to tell her grand- father what she had learned. Patiently he listened to her recite each number. “That's wonderful," he said when she had finished. "Tell me, though," the grandfather said, “what is 13 x 13?" They hadn't covered that in school, yet. It was beyond her range of experience. So the little girl looked at her grandfather and answered, "Grandpa, you know there's no such thing as 13 x 13." I'm reminded of that story whenever I think about how we limit God.

To the disciples the problem looked too big and the possibilities seemed too little.

What they didn't remember is the power that comes when we put ourselves in Jesus' hands.

Sometimes bringing ourselves to Jesus means letting go of somethings:

Worry

Fear

Our insecurities

Emotional baggage

Whatever the Holy Spirit might be talking to you about right now.

It make me think about the story told by Billy Graham about a little child the was playing with a very valuable vase. He put his hand into it and could not withdraw it. His father too, tried his best to get it out, to no avail. They were thinking of breaking the vase when the father said, “Now my son, make one more try. Open your hand and hold your fingers out straight as you see me doing, and then pull.” To their astonishment the little fellow said, “O no, dad, I couldn’t put my fingers out like that because if I did I would drop my dime.”

Smile, if you will but thousands of us are like that little boy, so busy holding on to the world’s worthless dimes that we cannot accept liberation. Drop the trifles in your life. Surrender! Let go, and let God have His way in your life.

But its not just the bringing notice what the text says is the next element

Blessing.— “he looked up to heaven and blessed” He gave thanks for the bread

What a contrast in this story! The disciples are grumbling. “We don't have enough,"

they whine. "Send the people home."

On the other hand, what is Jesus doing? Not grumbling but expressing gratitude.

Taking the loaves and fish, our Lord thanked God for what He had.

We spend too much of our lives complaining about what we don't have.

If I were just more talented, I would serve God. Or serve God better

If I had the gifts that someone else had, I could really make a difference for Christ.

But what about accepting who we are, thanking God for what we have, and then making all of ourselves available for His use.

Gratitude comes not so much from what we have as how we see what we have.

To the disciples, they were only five loaves and two fish. Not nearly enough to do anything. But to Jesus it was a gift from God, and turning His head to heaven, He thanked God for it.

The last element is...

Breaking.—"and brake the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before the people.”

God needs to break us and then remake us before He can use us.

We come with our pride, our resentments, our jealousy, our lack of expectation that God can do very much with us, and these things need to be broken.

Before the bread and fish were given to the people, Jesus took them in His hands and broke them.

Then, He used them to minister to the needs of people.

Sometimes the Lord will allow tragedy, or some trial or pain to enter our lives so as to break us and show us how weak we are without Him and how strong we can become with His power working within us.

Speaking of breaking, there are at least broken things in the Bible.

1. Broken pitchers (Judges 7:18,19) and the light shone out.

2. A broken box (Mark 14:3) and the ointment was poured out.

3. Broken bread (Matt.14:10) and the hungry were fed.

4. A broken body (I Cor,11:24) and the world was saved

The song writer put it this way:

Broken and spilled out just for love of You, Jesus

My most precious treasures lavished on Thee

Broken and spilled out, poured at Your feet

In sweet abandon, let me be poured out and used up for Thee

John Newton reminds us of what it means to put our all in God’s hands, to have him bless it, and then break it:

Thro' many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; 'Tis grace hath bro't me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.

It is the only miracle that is in all four of the Gospels.

I think there is a reason.

Won't you put your life in the Master's hands?

I wonder tonight if there is someone here tonight who feels as though they need to put their loaves and fishes in God’s hands and let Him do with them what they will.

I would like as many as will to come and pray.