Saturday, May 1, 2010

Sermon Snippet Summary: "D. None Of The Above"

Saturday, May 1, 2010
Anh Viet (Phillip Ma)

"D. None of the Above"

Luke 9: 10- 17 Feeding the Five Thousand
10 And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. 11 But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. 12 When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”
13 But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” 14 For there were about five thousand men.
Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” 15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.
16 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and brokethem, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17 So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.

Picture yourself 5 hours prior to hosting a fabulous dinner party. You open the fridge and there's only 1 frozen steak, 1 bottle of soda, and a lump of cheese. You're expecting 100 people. 100 hungry people. What would you do? Most likely, you'd run to the nearest Costco, grab a cart and pile as many bags of frozen wings, ready-to-eat salads, platters of pre-made hors d'oeuvres and boxes of soda you can fit inside your budget.

The twelve disciples probably looked at Jesus like He had gone bonkers when He told them to feed all 5000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. 5000 people can fit inside the Walter Pyramid at Cal State Long Beach! That's a whole lot of people to feed!

HOW DO YOU FEED 5000 PEOPLE??
A. Send them home (they'll eat at home)
B. Go into town and buy food for them
C. Send them home (again)
D. None of the Above

As humans, the disciples thought only the obvious: A & B. Most likely A. Buying food for 5000 people would be very costly, and they would need multiple trips just to carry the food back. Sending the people home would be the safest answer.

Jesus' answer was "D. None of the Above". He told His disciples to feed the people. Afterward, He told them to sit the people down in groups of 50. "Sitting down" back then wasn't like how we sit down on the couch. It's more like sitting at the dinner table waiting for mom to bring out the food. When Jesus told His disciples to have the people "sit down" it meant that He knew that they would be fed ahead of time. By this, the disciples thought, "well, how in the world do we give them food to eat??" We don't know how the process of breaking bread and the fish worked, but we do know that at the very end, everyone was full and satisfied. There was 12 baskets leftover, too!

In application to our lives:
Sometimes the most obvious answer isn't the right answer. Sometimes the answers we think are the right aren't. To have a good life, we have to learn to be flexible. To have a good life spiritually, we cannot be rigid or set in our ways. We have to flexible. The disciples had to be flexible and trust in what Jesus told them to do.

Wayne Grudem, a modern theologist, and a group of highly intelligent scholars gathered together one summer to translate the bible into the English Standard Version. All they did all summer was gather and translate God's awesome Word. Every morning Wayne would get up early and have his devotion. Weeks went on by and the job got tiring. So for about a week, he stopped waking up early to do his devotions. He thought that extra sleep will help him as he worked the long hours. The week went on and he noticed that he was more angry, frustrated and irritable. He traced everything back and realized that for that particular week, he didn't do his devotions. It was so obvious that sleeping more would produce better work, but it didn't. Doing his devotions was what got him through the day with less negativity.

My perspective:
We have to learn to be flexible. There is no way for a potter to mold and shape clay that has already harden. Same goes for our hearts and our habits.

Little things that aren't too obvious can make a huge difference. For me, I noticed that switching from my indie cds to 95.9 The Fish in my car makes me drive at a more relax pace. Just saying "Thank You" through my day makes me calmer and less irritable. The mood at the dinner table changes so quick when you pray out loud and thank God for your meal.

Try the little things that you think aren't as obvious: Changing your radio station, praying before every meal, reading one verse from a book in Psalm, or singing a verse from a worship song.

How awesome is it that one little utterance of prayer, praise, or thanks can change the entire mood or countenance of a person. One word can turn the spiritual battle around that you think you're losing.

Until next time ;)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Love this. THanks for posting it Mylinh!