A Lesson worth repeating

Children Message: God’s endless resources

2 king 4:1-7 The widow and the debt collector

A prophet’s widow came to Elisha in a panic.

My husband died in debt and my creditor is going to take my boys away

and sell them as slaves,

to pay the debt.

Would you like to be taken from your family and made a slave?

Would your parents like to loose you?

This is what Elisha did.

He asked

“What do you have, how can I help?”

She said

“Nothing, just a little jar of oil.”

What good is that?

But the prophet who said

“Borrow as many containers as you can,

then pour from your little container into the others and fill them,

when they are all full, sell the oil and pay off the debt,

keep the surplus to live on.

Now, she

*could have told him he was crazy!

*She could have asked him for money!

But she chose to believe Elisha

She borrowed lots of containers

She demonstrated her faith by doing what God’s prophet said

borrowing a lot of containers

She s got them all gathered in her house,

and then she started pouring

She filled one container.

She filled another container

Her boys kept handing her

Empty containers and taking away the full ones

Finally, she asked for another,

The boys said, that’s it

They are all full

And the oil stopped pouring.

Her little container was empty.

*Well they took the oil and sold it,

Paid off the debt and had money to spare.

.................

God will not always send a miracle

To solve your problems.

But, as the adults will see in their story,

God has compassion on us

He cares about us.

And God has plenty of stuff to meet all our needs.

Lets Pray

Father I thank you that we live in a time were children doubt have to worry about being sold into slavery.

Help these children and all of us to learn to trust you to meet our needs, when we can’t.

And when you meet our needs, help us to see how you take care of us and

Help us to be thankful always.

Teaching Pepe

As a kid, I was pretty good at finding something I wanted

and saving my money for it.

Mom was good at nixing my plans,

so here was my strategy,

I would save up all the money needed before I talked to mom.

Once I had the money,

it was time to tell mom my plans and

convince her to go along with it.

You should have heard her the night I said I bought tickets to the Merle Haggard concert

in Anaheim and would be going to it

alone. I was 16.

but I digress.

Once I got it in my head to get a talking bird.

Parrots were the best choice, but they cost a lot of money!

Parakeets and Cockatiels cost less but were less likely to learn to talk

But I found Myna-Birds to be affordable, and pretty good talkers.

I saved up money to buy the bird,

a cage,

some food and

a book about care for your mina bird.

But mom was not easy to convince.

Finally, we made a deal-

I could have the bird until I failed to take good care of it.

I liked my bird.

The way to teach a talking bird to talk is to give it the same lesson, day after day, for hours.

I taught Pepe to say “My name is Pepe” or something like that.

It didn’t take long, less than 6 months for Mom to decide

I wasn’t taking good enough care of my bird and it had to go!

That bird went to an aunt and uncles house,

relatives we seldom saw.

Now over the years Pepe lived there,

he learned better and longer phrases like

“Shut up, your dad’s trying to watch football”

Oh and “Hello” which Pepe said for the doorbell but not the phone.

You and I are a lot smarter than mina birds, but sometimes, we don’t learn our lesson the first time around and we have to learned them over and over again, until they sink in.

Four or Five summers in a row, my Betty mom quit smoking,

because she had really bad bronchitis,

But she would started up again when she recovered from the bronchitis,

then one summer, she quit smoking for good.

You and I have minor

and major life lessons to learn and

some of us just don’t catch on as quickly as others.

Lets read Mark 8.1-11

Mark 8.1-11

Mark 8:1–11 NIV

1 During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 2 “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. 3 If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.” 4 His disciples answered, “But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?” 5 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied. 6 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people, and they did so. 7 They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. 8 The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. 9 About four thousand were present. After he had sent them away, 10 he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the region of Dalmanutha. 11 The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven.

Critics object!

There are bible critics, who say this story could not be true

it’s just a repeat of the feeding of the 5,000.

They say the story is too similar:

Large crowd

Jesus wants to feed them

Disciples clueless

Sits them down

Jesus Blesses the food, brakes it and passes to the disciples to distribute

Gathered up pieces.

What could we say in reply

Jesus was responding to genuine need

The people had been with Him how many days? 3

The first miraculous feeding was to Jews, but the last location we were given for Jesus was

in the gentile section.

In the last chapter a gentile women begged Jesus to help her demon possessed daughter,

her persuasive word picture talked of eating the crumbs that fall from the children's table

Here Jesus is feeding thousands of gentiles.

Both Matthew and Mark tell both stories

The feeding of the 5.000 Matt 14 Mark 6

The feeding of the 4.000 Matt 15 Mark 8

Both talk about a 12 small baskets gathered up after the feeding of the 5,000

And both talk about 7 larger baskets gathered up after the feeding of the 4,000.

Yes our bibles just say baskets but it’s two distinct types of baskets used to gather up the leftovers.

Regarding the larger baskets gathered up of food after the feeding of 4,000.

That is the same type of basket as Paul was lowered in, the time he was smuggled out of Damascus.

Acts 9:25 & 2 Cor 11:33

The detail that really blows the criticism away is Jesus words in Matthew and Mark talking about both feedings.

Here is the passage from Mark.

Mark8:19-20

Mark 8:19–20 NIV

19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied. 20 “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.”

So it’s pretty easy to understand, these were two real miracles of food multiplication.

Why did Mark choose to include this miracle in his gospel?

Mark couldn’t write about everything Jesus said and did, so why include this story?

Mark is on a theme hear about the bread and how slow to learn and hard of hearts the disciples were.

It is hard for us to believe how,

after the feeding of the 5,000 the disciples didn’t just always assume

from then on that Jesus could and would multiply their food to meet the needs of any size crowd.

But the disciples seemed clueless when Jesus wanted to feed this crowd too.

What life lessons should you have learned by now, but keep missing.

A simple one to share is over eating.

I know when I over eat I don’t feel good and sometime my blood sugar goes way up.

What I need to do is work it off, literally exercise to get my sugar down.

but what I feel like doing is going to sleep and

it’s hard to do the right thing about exercise when I did the wrong

then about over eating, the wrong foods.

What life lessons have you been playing dodge ball with?

Are you ready to say

Yes Lord, I hear you

and I am ready to make a change?

After the feeding of the 4,000, what did Jesus do?

Got in a boat and

went across to west side

the Jewish side of the sea of Galilee

And back in the Jewish community, Jesus had a wonderful welcome!

Am I right?

NO

Mark 8:11 NIV

11 The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven.

I used to wonder why Jesus didn’t just give them a sign.

But Jesus was doing miracles every day,

they saw many of them

heard about other miracles and

could have investigated them.

If Jesus did some miracle like pulling a lion out of his robe.

to you really think these guys would have said

“Well I guess you really are God’s Son”

“How can I help you”

There was no way on God’s green earth that

after Jesus performed a miracle show for them

that they would say anything good about them.

They were hypocrites

and Jesus saw right through them.

He said

Mark 8:12–13 NIV

12 He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.” 13 Then he left them, got back into the boat and crossed to the other side.

That was short, Jesus had no time for their disingenuous questions.

I have a little book called Napkin Theology, and it is all about sharing principals of the christian faith in little diagrams you can draw on a restaurant napkin.

But the author was quick to say, some people aren’t there to learn from you, they are only there to argue.

If that’s there reason for discussion, cut it off and move on,

just like Jesus just did in our passage.

So back in the boat, two things happen.

The disciples realize they left the food behind and

Jesus warns them about the Leven, the yeast of the pharisees.

Mark 8:14–15 NIV

14 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15 “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”

And the disciples just done get it. They say

Mark 8:16 NIV

16 They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”

Jesus is right there with them, He can hear, He is also the son of God so He knows what they are saying and he says why are you talking about bread?

Mark 8:17–21 NIV

17 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” “Twelve,” they replied. 20 “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?” They answered, “Seven.” 21 He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”

So when Jesus said

“Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.”

He wasn’t talking about bread.

Jesus was talking about the un-believe of the pharisees

that unwillingness to accept the implications of the miracle they had seen

choosing rather not to believe, and try to discredit Jesus.

The disciples showed some unbelief when Jesus said I have compassion on these people, we need to feed them.

They didn’t say,

“Well he’s some bread, start multiplying it.”

No, they were concerned with where they could buy enough bread to satisfy this crowd, out in the wilderness like they were.

So we have two major questions from today, two major themes

What lessons of life have you been ignoring?

How many times did Delilah betray Samson before the final time were they bound him and cut his eyes out?

Samson was clearly ignoring a life lesson there.

What have you been ignoring?

And second,

Unbelief, willfully ignoring God’s witness in your life, makes you a hypocrite, and

unbelief that takes hold will make you into a different person that is harder to be reached by the gospel

So beware of that sin.

Let’s drawn near to God in prayer.