CHRISTIANS TRUST GOD TO PROVIDE
There is nothing like a new, not-yet-trained puppy to teach you that there are some things you cannot control. You’d swear they’re smiling as your flip-flop dangles from their mouth and they tear around the house, hiding behind a couch, then racing down the hall, ignoring your sweetest requests, your persistent pleading, your insistent command.
This inability to control things is harder when it comes to people. You can’t change the kid at school who doesn’t like you for no good reason. You can’t force your parents to change their rules. You wish you could convince the other person in the relationship to not do and say hurtful things…to work on the relationship…to not leave. You want your child to come back to their Savior, but you can’t make them.
You can’t change the diagnosis or the elimination of your job or tax laws or the death of someone you loved. There are just a lot of things that we discover we can’t control.
This not being able to control things throws a lot of people and leaves them feeling afraid or hopeless. I hope you don’t feel that way when these things hit. You don’t have to. Even though Christians struggle along with everyone else, we do it a little differently. We have the comfort and assurance that God is there for us, and we trust him to provide for us even when things seem out of control and there is no solution in sight.
We Bring Our Seemingly Impossible Problems to Jesus
You know that Jesus went through this kind of stuff too, right? Although there are a bunch of dogs mentioned in the Bible, I don’t recall Jesus trying to control a puppy, but there were many people who hated him and bullied him. He felt the hurt of damaged relationships—like when Peter denied knowing him. He knew the pain of someone walking out of his life Judas. He had a diagnosis written down by the prophets. It said that he would carry the weight of all people’s sins in his body and soul and that it would result in death—and the stress of that led him to plead with his Father for it to go another way. And he felt the gut-punch that came with the news of a friend’s tragic death
Jesus had just heard that John the Baptist had been executed. Killed for doing God’s work. His head placed on a party platter. Clearly a horrific act all by itself, and not terrible simply because he was a preacher or that he was a relative of Jesus. John was the one called to prepare people to see Jesus as the Savior, and he faithfully did that.
Can you understand why Jesus wanted to be alone with his disciples? To quiet all the noise. To grieve. To rest. To pray to his Father. The boat he got in was to distance himself from all the commotion. But thousands of people had run along the shore to the other side of the lake where he would land—5,000 men PLUS women and children!
Now, I would have handled the arrival on the other shore and the sight of all the people completely differently than Jesus did. But You’ve got to be kidding! or Turn the boat back around! were not Jesus’ responses. Instead, When Jesus got out of the boat, he saw a large crowd. He had compassion on them and healed their sick. When he saw the people, his heart ached for them. They needed him. The other gospel accounts mention that he didn’t only heal them; he taught them many things also.
As the sun continued to lower in the sky and dinner time approached, the disciples pointed out that they weren’t near anything. Jesus had purposely landed on a shore where there was nothing around so that they could be alone. So, there they were, with maybe almost as many people as those who attend a U of A basketball game and there was nothing to eat. No concession stands. No stores. No restaurants, No food trucks. It was kind of a problem—one the disciples had no control over or ability to fix. The only option was to send them all away. So, that’s what they told Jesus to do.
“They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” Well, that was a curveball! Can you imagine the stunned silence? Philip and Andrew and Peter all looking at each other. Looking to Judas, their treasurer? There was no way! You’ve hit a wall like that before? Faced with, “I don’t know what I’m going to do?” You’ve tried everything you can think of, but…
The bills are more than the income…and have been for a while. Your marriage is in trouble. That legal matter is not going away. Your family member seems bent on self-destruction. You can’t find a friend—a real one.
The kids are just…
There are a million things that bring us to our knees and we just can’t anymore. We don’t know what to do. We’ve tried it all. And that just might be the problem. WE have tried it all and counted on ourselves instead of involving God along the way, who is right there next to us.
This movie is a little old now, but I’m guessing many of you have seen it: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The father in the movie, Gus Portokalos, has one solution for absolutely everything: Windex. Zits? Windex. Rash? Windex. Bad hip? Windex. It's funny because we all know Windex isn't the answer to every problem. But spiritually, we're often not much different. We all have our own version of Windex. "If I just work harder..." "If I save a little more money..." "If I plan everything perfectly..." "If I can just stay in control..." But behind anything we think will fix our problems is that we actually think that WE are the answer to every problem!
Then life hands us something that we can’t handle, something no amount of planning, worrying, working, or saving can fix. That's exactly where Jesus’ disciples are. They see the crowd, they look at the five loaves and two fish and immediately begin calculating on their own and the math doesn’t work! Jesus simply says, "Bring them here to me."
You know that your Savior extends the same invitation to you, right? You can bring your problems, and you’ll get a compassionate Savior ready to provide help for you. It could be exactly what you want. The answer might come in a different, even unexpected, way. It may simply be the hug of his love through a tough time but you can trust him to provide for you in the very best way for you at that time.
Jesus Provides Far More Than We Can Imagine
What the disciples handed Jesus was ridiculously inadequate. You might think that he would have made more of a big deal about what he was about to do, but he simply said a prayer of thanks for the food like we do and gave it to the disciples. And then he keeps giving…and giving…and giving.
Though God promises to always provide what we need, he often gives us more— sometimes outrageously more. That actually might be true for most of us here this morning. He also displays his power and love when it comes to spiritual blessings. I don’t know if you knew this or remembered it, but Jesus snuck away sometime that evening. The next day, the crowds were looking for him. They knew the disciples had taken off across the lake. So, they hopped in boats and chased him down on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Their intention was to see more miracles and to make him their king. They were interested in the physical blessings he could give them.
So, Jesus had to teach them again. That might sound a little like us. Caught up in the worldly day-to-day, worried about all kinds of things and forgetting our true needs and God’s greatest blessings the spiritual ones
There is nothing in this world that can satisfy the starving human heart. Only God can give the love and forgiveness a sinful person needs. Only God can calm the stress and restlessness that comes from not finding an answer to happiness in all the things in this world and finding out that not everything is going to go just as we want it to. Only God can give hope to the hopeless and courage to the fearful. He does that in his Son.
The Master Teacher talked to those crowds who had now chased him down for the second day in a row. He told them that they were wrong to look at him as a king who could give them literal bread. He said I am the Bread of Life and proceeded to explain why he had come down from heaven. Brilliant teaching transition, right? They were focused on getting food and getting their country the way they thought it needed to be when what they truly needed was to know him, to know that eternal life comes by faith in him.
Jesus would give them something far more important and valuable than they were looking for his very life. The day was coming when he would allow a different crowd to take him by force. It would happen not by a lake, but in a garden. And that crowd wouldn’t be looking for what he could give them. Just the opposite. They were looking to give him something the torture of a cross. Death.
The people who did that and the other crowds that supported them were looking at entirely the wrong things. Control of their country. Control of their lives. Self-centered. Earth-focused. This blinded them to far greater things that Jesus came to provide for them.
Do not make the mistake they did. Don’t let the things you want in life blind you to what Jesus gives you and don’t let trust in yourself to control everything blind you to the way he provides for you. He has bigger things for you than accounts and achievements and awards and acceptance and experiences. More lavish than miraculously feeding thousands, his spiritual gifts to you overflow!
Here’s the greatest miracle: That he lived and died to forgive every sin of yours EVERY sin of yours
Every worry
Every anxious thought
Every selfish attempt to control everything
Every single time you left him out of your plans
Every failure to pray
Every time you didn’t trust
All of these are forgiven in Christ.
If God already gave you his Son, if Jesus took care of your greatest needs, why would he stop caring for you now? You don’t need to be afraid. You can be filled with hope and trust because your Savior—the one who provided for the earthly needs of the crowds and provided for their spiritual needs as well loves you just the same.
This doesn’t mean that things will always go smoothly or that there won’t be pain. Remember where this story begins. John the Baptist had been murdered. God provided...but he did not prevent John's suffering. There are times when God doesn’t remove the difficulty, but he does carry us through it.
Sometimes we look for the wrong things, don’t we? Proof of God’s love is found in him taking care of things just the way we want him to—that’s what we’re looking for. But the greatest evidence that God provides isn't that every earthly problem disappears. It's that Christ remains. His love endures. His forgiveness continues. His promise of life in heaven doesn’t go away. These are the greater things. And you can trust that he provides them for you. Amen.
Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.